Atlas Academy Adventures
by onetim3
Summary: Zayne never had the chance to attend a pokemon academy before, and now he will, but strange pokemon begin to appear in the world and it may be tied to his past. (Not great at summaries, story is better if you give it a chance) A lot of different characters will eventually appear in the story such as red, gold, calem, cynthia, steven, etc.
1. Chapter 1

*******DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon nor any of the characters created by the official pokemon company. I am only borrowing them for my story. I only own the original characters created by me******** Now on with the story.**

* * *

"So what do you think it's going to be like?" Said a boy with enthusiasm.

"I don't know, but I hear that everyone who gets accepted are the best of the best." Said another boy, taller than the first and had glasses.

"Didn't you do any research about the academy beforehand? You do know that the entrance exam isn't going to be easy right?" The girl next to them said.

"So I hear, but I think I'll manage. I'm amazing after all!" The first boy said.

*Sigh* and *Facepalm* "That might be your undoing if you're too carefree about it." Said the second boy with glasses.

"Don't worry, it'll be a breeze. Basically all I have to do is last 5 minutes in a battle against one of the examiners and i'll be in!" The first boy said with confidence.

"Ha! You think it's that easy? You do know that there is a written portion as well as the battle right?" The girl said.

The first boy gave a deadpanned look.

"Hmm….What happened to all your spirit earlier?" Said the second boy.

"Did you know there was a written portion?" The first boy inquired to the second boy.

"Yeah I did. I hope you studied." Replied the second boy.

"Well….All I have to do is get more than 50% of the questions right, no problem!" The first boy said with renewed confidence.

The girl next to them face-palmed and said, "Hopeless…..By the way, the cut-off is 80%, score anything less than that on the written portion and you'll have to retake the exam again next year."

The first boy gave another deadpanned look.

***More indistinct chattering***

By the rail on the left side of the front of the large silver ship stood Zayne, a 16-year old boy with a two block black hair cut, the front of his hair was just short above his eyes and swept slightly to the right. He stood at 6' 0" tall and had a slender yet defined build. His muscles weren't overly bulged, but they were just the right proportions where he didn't look lanky, and one can tell that he definitely did not neglect the gym.

He had rare ruby red eyes and wore black skinny jeans, a red ruby belt with a black outline bordering it and 3 black pouches hanging on the left side of the belt. On the right side of his belt hung 6 pokeballs. He had a white t-shirt and a medium-long black bomber jacket left un-zipped with the sleeves rolled up just before his elbows. He donned a black single-strap backpack slung over his right shoulder with red zippers. His shoes were black and red with a pokeball symbol on the side and wore a black wrist band on his left hand that had 3 small ruby's embedded on the left, bottom, and right side of the band with the top holding a keystone in it. He also wore a black necklace with a silver key hanging at the end.

The waves of the ocean crashed against the side of the large ship with a *Thwump!* and a *Splash!* a whole school of magikarp could be seen swimming just below the surface of the water. *Ring...ring...ring…* The ocean sure is pretty today Zayne thought to himself as he felt the gentle ocean breeze tickle his hair. *Ring...ring...ring* The ringing of a cellular device broke Zayne's relaxed and pensive state. A third cycle of ringing began when Zayne pulled out his cellphone to answer the call not bothering to look at the caller ID. *Ring...ring...click* "Hello?" Said Zayne with no added emotion behind the first words he spoke.

"Hey Zayne did you get on the ferry ok?" Zayne leaned against one of the rails of the ferry looking over the ocean.

"Yea…" Zayne said with little enthusiasm, he recognized the voice on the other end of the line immediately.

"Hmmm...Something wrong? You sound like you're tired? Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Said the person on the other line.

"Mmm...I'm fine, but do I have to attend this academy? I can learn things from you just as much as going to this academy, maybe even more" Zayne grunted.

"Hahaha! You've got plenty exposure traveling the world by scavenging old and weird rocks with me already, this'll be a good change of pace. Besides, it's important that you spend time with others your own age also. Make some friends and memories!"

Zayne gave one long and deep sigh, then said, "Alright, I'll give it my best shot...probably…"

The man on the other end gave a small sincere smile, but with a slight worrying expression as well, though of course Zayne couldn't see it he could tell from the sound of the man's voice over the phone that he was starting to feel unsure if the choice to enroll Zayne in this academy would create a rift between them, then he said "That's all I can ask for, try it out and if you end up really not liking it there, we can sort it out when I'm back. Hey, I gotta go, I'm gonna be in a pretty remote area with little to no signal for a few months so I won't be able to check-in with you for awhile, you gonna be alright?"

Zayne gave a small smile and said softly at first, but then confidently, "Yea...and hey, thanks for everything you've done for me so far, I won't let you down!" Zayne hoped his words would dispel any worries the man might have had as Zayne owed him a lot and didn't want to cause him to worry.

The man on the other end of the phone was taken aback for a second. Then said, "You don't have to thank me Zayne. You're like a son to me. I'll be cheering for you." Zayne could hear talking on the other end of the phone but couldn't make out what was being said. Before Zayne could say anything else the other person spoke, "Hey, I have to go now...And Zayne...I know you'll do great there!" *Click*

Zayne who was staring blankly at the open ocean took a pause and looked down at his phone. *Dad-Call Ended* He gave another long sigh and put his phone away in his pocket, then stared up at the sky.

I wonder if I look like an old man with the amount of sighs i'm letting out today Zayne thought. Nah, people would probably think I look sad and depressed, not old. That's not any better actually...Zayne's thoughts shifted from his self monologue to the world around him.

The sky, Zayne thought, it was really blue today, no clouds to obstruct the view. A family of Wingull and Pelipper flew overhead casting a few shadows on the ferry. He turned his head and his eyes followed one of the moving shadows as it was cast on the ferry until it passed a couple of teenagers talking about 10 feet from where he stood. The same two boys and girl he overheard earlier.

The first boy looked about 5' 9" and had messy blonde hair and green eyes. The second boy had an undercut style blue hair with the front reaching the front of his eyes and he also had blue eyes and wore glasses. He looked to be just as tall as Zayne while the girl had brown hair with a bun on top yet her hair still long enough to flow down a little past her shoulders. She also had green eyes and looked to be about 5' 5". Zayne recalled the trio's discussion he overheard earlier about the exam that they were all going to take the minute they reached Argos Island where Atlas Academy was built.

An academy dedicated to training and producing the best of the best. This academy tests true skill, ability, and knowledge and the only way you get accepted is by proving that you have what it takes. Many of world's best pokemon Scientists, Gym Leaders, Breeders, Trainers, Rangers, Teachers, etc. graduated from this academy. It may sound like a prestigious school but rest assured you can't get in by flaunting your wallet around. At least that was what Zayne had heard from his Dad.

Zayne mentally berated himself for staring at the trio longer than necessary as his eyes made contact with theirs briefly before he turned his head, except they were already walking his way.


	2. Chapter 2

****Trio's POV****

"Hey Leo, do you know who that is over there?" Said the brunette addressing the blonde haired boy.

"Who?" Said Leo.

The brunette, in the most inconspicuous way she could made a nodding motion with her head in Zayne's direction.

Leo took a quick glance in said direction before saying "Hmm...never seen him before, how about you Invel?" He addressed to the blue haired boy with glasses.

Invel fixed his glasses with a push of a finger in almost a villainous looking way before smirking and saying, "Nope. No clue."

Leo and Melanie gave a deadpanned look at Invel.

"What?" Said Invel.

"You looked like you were going to say something useful" Said Melanie.

"Well, we could just go introduce ourselves, he's standing alone by the rail over there" Said Leo.

"Looks like he's busy taking a call right now" observed Invel.

"Hey, he looks kind of mysterious...and hot looking don't you guys think?" Said Melanie.

"I can be mysterious too!" Said Leo with a slight hint of jealousy.

"Sure you can" Melanie commented sarcastically. "I only know just about everything about you" she continued.

Leo gave her a pouting look.

"You two are causing too much of a scene, I think you got his attention" mentioned Invel.

"What makes you say that?" Said Leo.

"Well, he's looking over here" Invel said bluntly.

At that instance, all three looked up and met Zayne's gaze.

***NO ONE'S POV***

Zayne mentally berated himself for staring at the trio longer than necessary as his eyes made contact with theirs briefly before he casually turned his head as best as he could, except they were already walking his way. As the trio were walking towards him Melanie made a comment, "Wow, now that I see his face clearly, he's even more handsome than I imagined, and his eyes…"

"Okay okay, we get it" grumbled Leo. "So he's good looking, can you stop ogling him so you don't creep him out and make him run away."

Melanie recomposed herself and said "Sorry, I was just mesmerized for a moment."

His eyes are alluring, I don't know what it is but it's very calming to look at Melanie thought to herself.

The Trio stopped short of where Zayne was standing before Invel made a fist and brought his hand to his mouth clearing his throat to interrupt the silence, which Zayne in turn got up from his leaning position over the rail, turned his head and straightened himself so he was facing the trio.

In order to break the awkwardness of the situation Invel spoke and said "Hello, my name is Invel Vincent Alseif, but Invel is just fine. My friends and I were talking about the academy and the entrance exam earlier and was wondering if you knew much about it? I hope we aren't intruding on anything."

I was doing just fine by myself Zayne thought to himself but then pondered to the conversation he had on the phone earlier and said, "Not at all, the names Zayne."

Leo let out a breath that he wasn't aware he was holding and stuck out his hand in a greeting matter. Zayne responded to the gesture and shook it as the blonde boy introduced himself.

"I'm Leo, and to be honest I was a little nervous on the way here, I don't mean to be rude or anything but you had an aura about you that seemed like you preferred to be alone so I thought you'd tell us to get lost or something, but I'm glad that I was wrong" Leo smiled.

Well, the thought did cross my mind Zayne thought silently to himself.

"I-I'm Melanie!..." The brunette semi-shouted.

Crap! I recomposed myself before we got here but now that I have to introduce myself i'm getting nervous Melanie thought to herself. She swore her heart stopped just for a fraction of a second when she thought she saw the corner of Zayne's lips lift into a small smirk before returning to his calm demeanor.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintances. So you want to know what I know about the academy and the exam huh?" Zayne thought aloud not forgetting about Invel's ice breaker question.

Invel, grateful that Zayne would continue the conversation so another awkward silence would not befall them after introductions said, "Yes, that would be a great help."

Zayne replied, "Sorry, I won't be of much help. I didn't mean to eavesdrop earlier but I don't know anymore than what the three of you spoke of earlier."

"Hey, that's no problem, we weren't being exactly quiet or trying to keep it to ourselves anyways" chimed Leo.

Melanie nodded her head up and down having finally expelled her nerves and fully composing herself, she said, "Mhm, even if we don't know much else all we have to do is give it our best and we should be proud of whatever the result is knowing we gave it our all."

"That's the spirit" said Leo, then continued on, "Hey, we've got about another hour before we reach the harbor, and I know just the thing to pass the time."

"And what's that?" Melanie asked.

"Hehe, Zayne, have a pokemon battle with me, it'll be a great way to get to know one another and a great way to pass the time. What do you say?" Leo proposed.

Zayne thought about it for a minute, guess a little friendly battle wouldn't hurt. "Alright, why not" said Zayne. "How many pokemon do you want to battle with and who'll judge?"

"Let's battle with 3 pokemon and Invel can judge" said Leo.

"Hey, don't just go assigning me roles Leo, but I'll let it slide this time, this sounds like it'll be interesting." Said Invel. And I also wonder how strong Zayne is he thought to himself.

"In that case, you guys can use the open gym stage in the back of the ship, no one's using it right now." Melanie suggested.

Zayne and Leo nodded and the four of them walked around the large ship to the back where the gym stage was. It was a simple stage made of dirt but smoothed and flattened out so it was like walking on the ground with no grass. Lines drew the ends and divided the stage. Zayne and Leo took their positions on opposite ends of the stage while Invel took the spot where the referee would normally stand and Melanie stood off to the side watching intently. Several bystanders stood nearby talking amongst themselves and absently glanced their way.

Invel then began by saying, "This will be a 3 on 3 pokemon battle, substitutions are allowed, a victor will be decided when all 3 of one of the opponents pokemon can no longer battle, or if one side forfeits the match. Both sides please prepare for battle."

Zayne grabbed one of his pokeball's from the right side of his belt and threw it in the air and said, "Arcanine, in position."

A glowing light led from the pokeball to the battlefield and a form appeared a few feet in front of Zayne. When the light ceased, Zayne's Arcanine stood, tall and proud and gave off an emanating aura of power. Arcanine gave a small approving growl.

"Wow! An Arcanine! And it looks really powerful too!" Commented Leo.

"Hmm, Arcanine's a fire type so how about I go with...Swampert! Prepare for battle!" Leo shouted and threw his own pokeball in the air. A glowing light emanating from his pokeball and onto the battlefield revealing his swampert poised and ready for battle.

Swampert released a loud battle cry, "SWAMPERT!"

Arcanine remained still seemingly unaffected but glared down at Swampert. A fraction of a second later Swampert stirred uncomfortably and said "Swamp…"

"Huh...what's wrong Swampert?" Leo said.

"It's Arcanine's ability intimidate. It activates at the start of a battle and lowers its opponents attack power." Melanie commented.

"Tsk...Don't falter Swampert and get ready" said Leo.

"Without further ado, let the match, begin!" Invel decreed and made a downward striking motion with his hand signaling the beginning of the battle.

"Swampert, use sludge bomb!" Leo ordered.

"Extreme speed" commanded Zayne in a calm manner.

Swampert began preparing a sludge bomb attack when Arcanine disappeared from view and a second later appeared in front of Swampert striking it right underneath the jaw. The force was strong enough to force Swampert's jaw close and disrupt Swampert's attack sending Swampert flying and hitting the edge of the ferry's rail. Swampert groaned in pain.

No way, his Arcanine is so fast Leo thought, then said, "Swampert, are you alright?"

"Swamp….Swampert!" Swampert said and staggered back onto its feet.

"Alright, Swampert, use hydro pump!" Leo commanded.

Swampert prepared a hydro pump attack and launched it towards Arcanine.

"Arcanine, flame wheel" Zayne said.

Arcanine gave an acknowledging "Arr!" before bending its front legs and lowering its head. Soon after a burst of flames engulfed Arcanine's entire body right before a powerful stream of water clashed against Arcanine.

 _FWSSSSHHHHHH..._ _SSSTTTSSSHHHHHH..._

White steam was released on the battlefield from the clash of a strong and cool hydro pump against a hot and fiery flame wheel. A few moments later and the steam began to dissipate allowing visual.

"Uh...No way!" Leo said.

Standing unmoved and unharmed with a blaze of fire whirling around its body was Arcanine. Flame wheel still active. Zayne gave a small and approving smirk.

Not far off the bystanders who didn't take too much interest before started gossiping amongst themselves now intrigued at the battle at hand.

"Woah! Did you guys see that! Awesome! I never knew you could use flame wheel like that! Who is that guy!? That's a strong Arcanine to counter a hydro pump move like that."

Melanie and Invel were equally shocked and impressed.

No way! I thought having the type advantage would give me an upper hand. I thought he would be strong but to think that he's able to counter type advantage moves like that. Leo had an inner dialogue with himself trying to think what his next move should be.

"Swampert, return." Leo took out his pokeball and a red stream of light enveloped Swampert and Swampert disappeared with the light back into the safety of the pokeball.

"You're strong, just like I thought you'd be" stated Leo to Zayne.

Arcanine's flame wheel dissipated and Zayne said, "Thanks, you had a good idea using Swampert against my Arcanine, but as you guessed, it'll take more than type advantage to best us."

Leo smirked, then said, "Heh, i'm getting fired up! Go Gigalith!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Just a heads up, when you see paranthesis (...) it's going to signal that a character is recalling a memory. And...On with the story.

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Leo threw a pokeball into the air and another stream of light enveloped the field revealing a Gigalith. Gigalith stood straight with a hard look in its eyes ready to do battle. Soon after a steady stream of sand began to cover the battlefield.

Leo smirked while Zayne gave a small smirk himself before returning to his calm demeanor thinking to himself. So, his Gigalith has the ability sand stream. I should assume it might have a hidden ability that might have something to do with taking advantage of the sudden sandstorm. A sand force hidden ability perhaps. Zayne was brought out of his thoughts when Gigalith came charging forward.

Leo shouted, "Use smack down Gigalith!"

"Gig!" Gigalith replied.

Gigalith was right in front of Arcanine and attacked but missed. Arcanine expertly jumped to the left side of Gigalith.

"Fire Blast!" Ordered Zayne.

Not a moment later a large powerful symbol engulfed in fiery red and yellow flames appeared in front of Arcanine and expertly collided against Gigalith's side. The proximity, force, and speed of the blow was so powerful it blew Gigaltih across to the other side of the ferry's rail with a shattering crash and plume of smoke rising in the air off Gigalith's side from where it was hit.

"Gig!" Gigalith shouted. "Gigalith!" Gigalith groaned in pain.

A red fiery spark appeared where Gigalith was injured and then disappeared a moment later.

Gigalith was burned from that attack Melanie noted.

That was an incredibly powerful fire blast. Leo may talk a good game but still, he is by no means a pushover. He's a powerful trainer in his own right but to be this outclassed and outmatched in a battle...Invel was having his own internal dialogue and attempting to process how the tide of the battle was going.

"Gigalith! Can you get up?" Leo asked with concern.

"Gigalith! "Gigalith responded by exerting all its energy to standing back upright.

"Arr." "Arcanine made a small growling noise as the sand storm dealt a small amount of damage to Arcanine, but continued to stand in position.

"Alright! Gigalith, use Bulldoze!" Leo shouted!

"GIIIGGG!" Gigalith shouted and stood on its hind legs preparing to smash the ground and release the attack, however, a second later Gigalith made a groaning sound and instead of following through with the attack a red fiery flare was ignited on Gigalith's side where it was hit with fire blast earlier. Gigalith fell forward and instead of planting its feet into the ground to commence with the attack its legs gave out and Gigalith fainted.

More chattering from the bystanders was heard. "No way! That's awesome! What a fire blast! I want to battle him! One fire blast? Who is this guy!? That move shouldn't have been effective, what kind of power does his Arcanine have?" The chatter from the bystanders continued.

"That was incredible. I've never seen a fire move take out a rock type pokemon before in just one go. What raw power." Invel spoke aloud but not loud enough for anyone to hear other than himself.

Leo stood motionless. Stunned at what just occurred. He never felt this helpless in a battle before. Sure he's lost battles before and won a lot too but in all the battles he lost he was never this outclassed or outmatched. His fighting spirit from earlier was beginning to leave him. Zayne noted the defeated look on Leo's face which slightly irritated him. Is he really going to give up right now.

"Invel, can you make the call?" Zayne asked.

Invel looked up, slightly ashamed at forgetting he was supposed to be judging and said, "Gigalith is unable to battle, this match goes to Zayne and Arcanine."

Leo didn't seem to notice and continued to stand still unmoved.

"Leo…" Zayne said, his voice seemed deep and soothing somehow yet critical, in a sincere and educating way. "It's difficult isn't it."

Leo slowly lifted his head and looked at Zayne with an almost pained expression but didn't say anything.

"Do you want to give up?" Zayne continued. "There is no shame in knowing when to admit defeat."

At this comment Leo balled up his hands in a fist and clenched hard. He knew he was outclassed. He knew he was outmatched. He had never faced an opponent this strong before. What has he been doing all this time he thought to himself.

Zayne sighed. Then said, "There is no shame in knowing when to admit defeat...but how can you show such an expression at this moment."

Leo clenched his jaw, then said, "What else can I do!? I was so sure before...b-but...how can you be this strong?! How can I battle someone like you!?" Leo then looked down towards his feet.

Zayne took in a deep breath, then slowly breathed out and said, "Are you going to abandon your pokemon?"

At this comment, Leo looked up one more time at Zayne.

"How can you leave Gigalith in that state? You should return it to its pokeball to rest" Zayne said.

Leo looked ashamed and apologized to Gigalith before returning it to its pokeball.

"Leo" Zayne said in a calm and stern voice.

Leo once again looked at Zayne in the eyes. Melanie was right, there was something mesmerizing about them. Something that showed wisdom and knowledge. Those red ruby eyes. Leo could tell. They held power. They held sincerity. They held...pain. Those eyes portrayed before him a person who had overcome loss and true hardships. Someone who fought with conviction and love for his pokemon. Someone who did not look down on his opponents.

"What do you fight for?" Zayne said.

Leo was startled at this question. His hands slowly relaxed and fell at his sides. What did he fight for. What did he fight for? Because battling is fun? Because that's all he knows? He didn't know now. He never really thought about it.

"You don't have to have an answer now. But knowing what you fight for...and then deciding to fight for it. That is what gives you strength. And when you share your feelings with your pokemon, you can only become stronger." Zayne lectured. "I ask you again, what do you fight for? Do you fight for yourself? Do you fight to protect something? Do you fight to become the very best? To become stronger? When you know what you fight for you become strong. Perhaps you fight to discover what you want to fight for. You fight to discover yourself. That is also fine. You fight to test your strength. That's okay too. It doesn't have to be something grandiose. You can fight for something such as to have fun. You can fight for multiple reasons. But Leo, if you lose your will, so too will your pokemon. Remember, you do not fight alone. Your pokemon fight for you. Will you fight for them? Or will you give up on them? If you feel helpless now, what of your pokemon. They probably want to fight to protect you. Perhaps they want you to feel proud of them. I'll tell you this now, even after just a few exchanges from our pokemon's battle, your pokemon feel proud of you. Do you feel proud of them? Win or lose, i'm sure they'll want to continue staying by your side." Zayne inquired and lectured.

Leo had a look in his eyes, one of realization. A realization that he was weak. He was weak for not even considering how his pokemon might feel. He realized that he was being stupid for spacing out right now. Zayne was right. I've won plenty of battles before. I've also lost plenty of battles before but we only trained harder and got stronger. Just because i'm facing an opponent who is much stronger doesn't mean I should give up.

"Don't give up Leo!" Melanie shouted.

Leo's eyes looked surprised. Melanie he thought. A flash of what Melanie said earlier replayed in his head.

("All we have to do is give it our best and we should be proud of whatever the result is knowing we gave it our all").

Leo recomposed himself. That's right he thought. No matter how tough the battle is, all I can do is give it my best and whatever happens will happen. But I know i'll just make up excuses if I don't give it my all. And my pokemon won't be satisfied if I don't try my best cause I know they'll always give me their best. Leo's eyes had a new found strength in them. One much more lively than before.

Zayne gave an approving smirk and said, "Now those are eyes with true power."

Leo made a fist with his hands and said, "Heh, Zayne. I realize now that i'm weak. But that doesn't mean that I have to remain weak. Truly, I thank you for making me see my flaws. That I hadn't considered the feelings of my pokemon. For making me see that I should have faith in myself like my pokemon have in me."

At that moment Leo's pokemon came out of their pokeball's and surrounded him with hugs and sounds of approval. "Swampert, Gigalith, Golem, Talonflame, Raichu, Sceptile! Thank you for always being there for me." Leo said. "And thank you Melanie, I can always count on you to cheer me on." Leo gave Melanie a big sincere and appreciative smile.

Melanie turned her head quickly to the side, a little blush showing on her cheeks. What the heck she thought to herself, he's being a dork...but he's kind of a cute dork…

"N-No problem" Melanie said with her head still turned to the side in an attempt to hide her blushing cheeks.

"And you too Invel. I know I can always count on you no matter what happens." Leo said to Invel.

Invel fixed his glasses on his face then said, "Leo, you're my best friend, even if we don't see eye to eye sometimes, I'll always have your back."

Leo grinned, then looked back at Zayne and said, "Alright, I think I made you and Arcanine wait long enough. Shall we continue this battle?"

Zayne still had his smirk on and said, "I thought you'd never ask."

Arcanine gave and approving growl and gave an annoyed growl also as the sandstorm was still brewing and all this time waiting for Leo to regain his composure caused Arcanine to continuously take damage over time.

Leo then said, "Then I choose you, Raichu!"

Raichu stepped away from Leo's side and onto the battlefield.

"Hm...interesting choice." Said Zayne.

"Rai…" Raichu said.

Raichu was also damaged a little by the sandstorm but continued to stand strong. Leo thought to himself, Arcanine is way too fast. Swampert can only match half Arcanine's speed at best, maybe not even. Gigalith was too slow so Arcanine was able to maneuver easily around Gigalith's attacks. Sceptile is my fastest pokemon but it's a bad match-up against Arcanine. Considering fire blast could take out Gigalith which had the type advantage, I'd best not use Sceptile. Raichu is my second fastest pokemon, I'll try to work around Arcanine's speed. This is the best choice.

Invel then said, "Without further delay, let the match continue!"

"Raichu, use quick attack!" Leo shouted.

"Smokescreen" Zayne said.

Raichu leapt forward but a cloud of dark smoke covered the field almost instantly. When Raichu reached the spot where Arcanine was supposed to be Arcanine was nowhere to be found.

Tsk...where did Arcanine go Leo thought. "Raichu, use echoed voice!" Leo commanded.

"Rai-Chu!" Raichu said and released a bellowing sound across the entire battle field.

"Arrr…" Arcanine growled as it was hit by echoed voice.

Not bad Zayne thought. The smoke screen dissipated and revealed Arcanine's location.

"There, now use Electroweb Raichu!" Leo said.

Raichu released a current of electricity towards Arcanine shaped in a web like structure.

"Extreme Speed." Zayne commanded.

Arcanine disappeared before the electric net could ensnare Arcanine. Arcanine appeared behind Raichu.

"Raichu, quick attack!" Leo quickly ordered.

Raichu disappeared but was chased by Arcanine. Raichu moved left, right, left, and left again attempting to shake Arcanine off its tail but Arcanine continued to keep pace with relative ease. If we can't shake Arcanine off our tail then we should take Arcanine head on, and maybe inflict static status on Arcanine.

"Raichu, thunder punch!" Leo shouted.

Raichu quickly turned around to hit Arcanine with a thunder punch but when Raichu turned to release the attack Arcanine wasn't behind Raichu anymore, but rather in front of Raichu.

"Rai?..." Raichu inquired.

Oh no Leo thought. "Raichu, in front of you!" Leo shouted.

Hm...not a bad strategy Leo, Zayne thought to himself, however...

"Fire blast." Said Zayne.

A second later the same large fiery symbol that made its mark with Gigalith had collided against Raichu and sent Raichu flying out of the gym stage.

"RAAAIII!" Raichu screeched.

"Raichu!" Leo exclaimed.

Raichu remained unmoved from where it landed.

"Raichu is unable to battle, the winner of this match goes to Arcanine." Invel judged.

"Raichu, return, you did great." Leo praised.

Hm...Alright, Leo thought to himself. "Swampert, it's up to us again, you ready?" Leo addressed to Swampert.

"SWAMPERT!" Swampert shouted with a battle ready will and got into position.


	4. Chapter 4

*******DISCLAIMER: I do not own the character Zeno. He is a character from Hunter x Hunter and belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi. I borrowed his character Zeno for my story. Of course this is not a crossover, but I like the character Zeno so I wanted him to be in the story. Now back to the story.**

* * *

The sandstorm finally ceased. Arcanine gave an approving growl.

"How are you feeling Arcanine?" Zayne asked.

"ARRR!" Arcanine gave a strong and proud roar signaling that it was more than fine to continue battling.

Zayne gave an approving nod and said, "Then lets finish this."

"Arr!" Arcanine agreed.

"Swampert, lets go!" Leo said.

"Earthquake Swampert!" Leo commanded.

If Arcanine is too fast on land then we'll force Arcanine into the air where we can target and hit Arcanine with a powerful water move Leo thought.

"Arcanine." Zayne said.

Arcanine seemed to understand what Zayne intended and jumped into the air avoiding the Earthquake attack.

"Hah, exactly as I predicted! Swampert, use hydro pump!" Leo shouted.

Swampert readied a hydro pump attack.

"Fire Blast." Commanded Zayne.

Arcanine prepared a fire blast attack and moments later both Swampert and Arcanine released their attacks which collided halfway between them. The Fire Blast attack slowly pushed pass the Hydro Pump attack and then quickly overpowered the water attack successfully landing a direct hit on Swampert.

"SWAAMP!" Swampert shouted.

"No, Swampert!" Leo shouted with concern.

"Swampert is unable to battle, the winner is Zayne and Arcanine!" Invel said aloud.

Leo ran towards Swampert who had fainted. Leo knelt down by Swampert and placed his hand on Swamperts side and said, "Great job Swampert, you really gave it your all. Have a good rest now."

Leo returned Swampert to its pokeball then turned to look at Zayne who had walked next to his Arcanine patting its head and giving it praise before returning Arcanine to its pokeball. Zayne walked over to Leo and extended his hand to help Leo up who was still in a kneeling position. Leo accepted Zayne's gesture to help him up and Zayne pulled him up to a standing position then said, "Leo, you did great. The world is a huge place with so many different people and pokemon. Some extremely powerful, and some who you'll find think you to be the strongest there is out there. I think Melanie made a great point earlier. All we can do is face whatever comes our way with everything we have, and we can be proud of whatever the result is knowing we did the best we could."

Leo smiled and said, "Yea, you're right. Thanks for battling with me Zayne. I learnt a lot from you in such a short time. I think we really did learn a lot about each other from our battle. But I'm mostly surprised at how much I learnt about myself in this battle."

Zayne gave a sincere smile and nodded. Invel and Melanie ran towards them.

Melanie shouted, "Leo!" And gave him a crushing hug, then let go and smacked him on the head.

"Ow!" Exclaimed Leo. "What was that for?" He said.

"Uh, for making me worry you idiot! You never lost your composure like that in a battle before. Seriously, idiot. Making me worry about you for nothing." Melanie pouted and turned away. Then said, "Well, good job anyways."

Leo just gave her a confused look. Then smiled, rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand and said in a sincere voice, "Thanks Melanie...Always."

Melanie's cheeks turned a hint of pink. A second later Leo received a punch on his left arm. "Hey! What was that for Invel?"

Invel just looked at Leo and said, "Well, I don't know, it just seemed appropriate."

Then smiled and opened his mouth prepared to say something, but before he could say anything the bystanders around them watching the whole battle began to swarm around them. All of them speaking at once commenting here and there and asking a bunch of questions. Zayne, Leo, Melanie, and Invel had to weasel their way out of the crowd and ran to the nearest door leading inside of the massive ship disappearing from the crowd, but not before Leo had a chance to recall all his pokemon back to their pokeballs.

At the center of the ferry, high above the main deck was the captain's quarters and VIP lounge room that overlooked the front and back of the main deck. There stood a short and slim old man who seemed somewhat in his late 60's with his hands behind his back with a look of curiosity and interest at the battle that just transpired. He had some wrinkles on his forehead and his hair was white and spiked up and he had a white fu manchu beard. He wore a purple and white garb that had the japanese characters for Dragonmaster on it.

"Very interesting." He commented but said no more and stroked the right side of his fu manchu beard.

"Master Zeno, your coffee is ready sir." Said one of the waiters holding his cup of coffee.

Zeno acknowledged the man and retrieved the coffee before sitting in one of the recliners in the VIP lounge room. He crossed his legs and took a sip of his coffee and gave an approving "Hmm." Then silence followed. The waiter left the room as the Captain of the ferry ship walked in. The waiter paused and saluted the captain before exiting.

"I see you got your coffee." The Captain said.

"I did." Said Zeno.

"To your liking I hope?" Said the Captain.

"I give it passing marks." Zeno replied, then taking another sip.

"I saw you watching the battle earlier on the back of the main deck." The Captain commented.

Zeno remained silent.

"So, what did you think?" The Captain asked.

Zeno sighed, then put down his cup of coffee. Right as he did so the Captain took a seat across from him and made himself comfortable.

"Oh come on, you are the legendary dragon trainer, we've rarely had time to talk the entire trip and just now I happen to have some down time. We still have half an hour before we reach the harbor, can't you spare me a little bit of your time. For old times sake." The Captain whined.

"You always have a lot to say don't you Boras." Zeno addressed the Captain.

"Well I could say you have too little to say" laughed Boras. "But really, what did you think? That kid and his Arcanine, he was pretty strong." Boras commented, then continued, "But you have a true eye for this kind of stuff, tell me, what was the difference between that boy and the boy with the Swampert. His pokemon seemed to be well trained to me but he was completely outmatched. His choice in pokemon against that Arcanine was a good strategy too but he couldn't make a dent in the battle."

"Hm…" Zeno let out, then said, "There were several defining factors that defined the outcome of that battle." Zeno commented.

"Do tell." Boras said with an interested expression.

"First, the main factor was the amount of experience." Zeno pointed out, then continued, "The boy and his Arcanine seem to have a lot of experience battling powerful opponents in different types of environments. He remained calm throughout the entire battle and employed techniques in a creative way that goes beyond the basic principle of the ability. For example, using flame wheel to cover the body in intense heat preventing water attacks from reaching the main body and causing the water to evaporate on contact with the fire. Normally one would not use flame wheel in such a way, however, his ability to employ this offensive technique into a defensive one allows his fire pokemon to fight against pokemon types that would have the advantage. This gives him versatility."

Boras sat there staring with awed eyes at the knowledge this master before him was relaying to him.

Zeno continued on, "The second main factor was the level difference between Arcanine and the other pokemon."

"Huh? You could tell the level of their pokemon just by looking?" Boras asked incredulously.

"Hm, when you have studied and trained pokemon as long as I have you can tell certain things just by a glance, a touch, or observing a battle." Zeno replied, then continued, "It isn't accurate, however I can guess with a relative small margin of error the level of the two boys pokemon. It is quite impressive. The blonde haired boy's Swampert is most likely around level 65, Gigalith around level 56, and his Raichu around level 62, however, the other boys Arcanine was most likely around level 92."

"L-Level 92?!" Remarked Captain Boras. "At his age! With an Arcanine at level 92! What insane training he and his Arcanine must have gone through. Of all my pokemon, the strongest I have is level 85." Boras said.

"I can tell that he is quite talented. And he must have also had quite a good teacher." Noted Zeno.

A moment later and one of Boras's sailors came through the door.

"Apologies for the intrusion Captain, Master Zeno, I came to inform you that we are 10 minutes away from the Argos Island harbor Captain." Said the sailor, he bowed and then took his leave.

"Well, it appears I am needed." Boras said. "The commentary was quite enlightening master Zeno, it's always a pleasure to have you on board. I'll take my leave." Boras bowed and then left the room.

Zenos watched Boras exit the room before picking up his coffee and resuming to drink in peace and silence.


	5. Chapter 5

Zayne, Leo, Melanie, and Invel took a moment to catch their breaths. They managed to make it to the 3rd lower level of the ferry which was where Leo and Invel's rooms were located. Melanie took out her pokenav which was tracking the distance and time it will take for the ferry to reach Argos Island.

"Guys, we've got 10 minutes before we reach the harbor! I haven't re-packed all of my things yet!" Melanie said frantically. "Sorry but I'm gonna head up to level 1 where my room is and pack my things. I suggest you guys do the same, we can meet up at the dock. See-ya!" Melanie disappeared from view before anyone could say anything else.

"Well, I guess we should get packed and ready to go too." Suggested Invel who started walking towards his room.

"Yeah, good idea. Hey Zayne?" Inquired Leo.

"What's up?" Zayne replied.

"Uh…" Leo fidgeted a bit, and then scratched the back of his head and asked, "So...can I consider us as friends now?..."

Leo felt a bit silly asking, and then thought to himself, was this how I made friends when I was a kid. If it is, then it seemed a lot easier back then than it is now…

A few moments of silence passed between them, then Zayne said, "Yea, I suppose so."

Leo had a giant grin on his face, then said "Really! I mean...great, I'll see you at the dock then!" Then he disappeared into his room.

Zayne had a silent thought to himself for a moment, is this how you make friends? He asked himself. He shrugged and then left to the second floor where his room was and packed up his things. Not long after a loud noise from the ferry signaled that they reached the harbor and was docked. A few seconds later and a voice over the intercom echoed throughout the entire ship.

"This is your Captain speaking. We have reached our destination, The Argos Islands and have docked safely at the harbor. If this is your final destination, please ensure you have grabbed all of your belongings and exit the ship in a calm and orderly manner. If this is not your final destination, we will be departing tomorrow at 0800. All those of you who are partaking in the Atlas Academy entrance exam, please have your invitations ready at hand. There will be someone from the Academy ready to greet you at the end of the dock and escort you to the exam site. Best of luck to you all!"

There was a clicking sound which signaled the end of the Captain's address to the crew and passengers.

Guess this is it thought Zayne. He started walking to the exit and towards the dock. Now that they had actually arrived on the island there was a growing anticipation in him that Zayne didn't know he had. He was actually sort of curious as to what it'd be like living on an island surrounded by so many different people around his age. A requirement for entering the academy is that you had to be at least 15 years of age. He had always travelled around with his pseudo-father moving from place to place and exploring ancient caverns, ruins, mountains, etc. that he had never had a chance to just remain in one place for a very long time and make any friends, nor get to spend time with people his own age. But I guess I did make a friend already he thought. And rather quickly too.

This whole becoming friends thing was new to him. Wait, does that make Melanie and Invel his friends too or not? Leo made it verbally clear but Melanie and Invel didn't say anything. Is it implied or is it not? Zayne was brought out of his trance when he heard his name called.

"Zayne!" Leo said while waving at him from afar.

Looks like Leo, Melanie, and Invel were already at the front of the dock gathered where many other applicants were standing. Zayne started walking towards them while taking a note of the surroundings.

The ground surrounding the island was grassy but cut neatly. The dock didn't connect to a city-like harbor like he thought it would. Instead, it seemed like it connected to an uninhabited island. About 5 meters away from the dock was a forest. Zayne stopped walking when he finally reached Leo and the others.

"Looks like whoever is supposed to greet us isn't here yet." Commented Leo.

Not long after a large airship appeared over the forest heading towards the dock.

"That must be them in that giant airship." Observed Invel and pointed at the direction of the forest.

"I wonder what kind of person they will be." Said Melanie.

It didn't take very long for the airship to land not too far from where the applicants were gathered. A walkway descended from the side of the airship and out walked a slender man. He wore a green haori with black outlines on the rims. The back of his haori had a kanji for wisdom on it. The man seemed to be about 6' 2" tall and had messy light blonde hair with gray eyes. He had a small stubble around his chin and carried a cane in his right hand, although Zayne observed that he seemed to walk fine without the need of one. The man seemed to be somewhere in his late 30's to early 40's.

He walked until he reached the front of the mob of applicants and said, "Yo!"

Needless to say, most if not all the applicants were a bit stunned at the first word spoken by this man sent by the academy to greet them.

The man scratched the back of his head and sheepishly said, "Well...this is nerve-wracking isn't it. Hahahaa…"

He cleared his throat, then said, "I am Professor Yucca. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I guess I should get right to the point. You all applied and received an invitation to participate in Atlas Academy's entrance exam. Please have those ready for you will need them to enter the airship which will take you to your first exam. The second exam will consist of a scavenger hunt and survival exercise. You are allowed to use the same one pokemon to help with the first and second part of the exam. You will receive instructions on how to continue and finish your exam once you have completed the second exam. Well then, I guess that's it for now, please follow me to the airship. You will present your proof of invitation to the guards before entering. Oh, by the way, it is almost lunch time, unfortunately you won't be provided food so you'll have to get it on your own somehow."

Professor Yucca walked off towards the airship and everyone else followed suit, little whispers and chatters here and there amongst the crowd could indistinctly be heard as everyone prepared to show the guards their invitations. Once everyone was inside a large humming could be heard as the airship started to lift from the ground. The walkway was retracted and the giant door to the airship closed as the airship was finally airborne and heading towards the academy entrance. Out the window Zayne could clearly see that while the island may seem uninhabited at first glance, it was clear that the academy had a definite presence here. At this height he could see 7 large towers erected at seven different equidistant points from the center which was where the academy stood. He noted that at the top of each of the 7 towers was a large statue of a pokemon, but each statue was different. An Articuno, Reshiram, Darkrai, Aerodactyl, Gengar, Aggron, and a Gyrados.

"Hey, what do you think those towers with pokemon on top of them are?" Inquired Leo.

"I'm not sure but it's quite the impressive structure." Replied Invel.

"Those are the seven champion towers." Professor Yucca said from behind Leo, Invel, Melanie and Zayne.

The sudden unexpected reply caught them all off guard as they turned their heads towards Professor Yucca who was attempting to light his pipe.

Leo continued his inquiry, "What are the seven champion towers and why do they have statues of pokemon on the top?"

A moment later Professor Yucca got his pipe to light and gave a puff of smoke in the air before saying, "I guess you didn't do much research about the academy and the island before coming huh?"

Leo gave a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his neck, then said, "Yeah….I meant to but...I just didn't get around to it."

Professor Yucca just stared for a moment, then laughed and said, "Eh, since you're curious i'll tell you about them.

There are seven champion towers at the edge of the island evenly spaced apart and all equidistant from the center where the main academy campus is located. Located near each tower are the dormitories. But here we categorize them as houses. If and when you pass and get accepted as a full fledged student of Atlas Academy you will be randomly placed in one of the seven houses located near one of the seven champion towers.

In this academy there are over 5000 students. The seven strongest trainers in no particular order are given the title champion. When a student has obtained the title champion, a statue of their most trusted and powerful pokemon is erected atop one of the champion towers and that student's new living quarters becomes that champion tower.

If a student wishes to claim the title champion for themselves they are free to challenge the current champion of any of the seven champion towers. Should they succeed then they shall have a statue of their pokemon placed atop the tower and the champion tower would become theirs. Should they fail, they are not allowed to re-challenge any of the champions for at least 3 months.

The houses near each champion tower are named after one of the seven major regions of the world. For instance, champion tower 1 would have house 1, also called the Kanto Houses. Tower 2 has house 2 known as the Johto Houses. House 3 has the Hoenn Houses, 4 are the Sinnoh Houses, 5 are the Unova Houses, 6 are the Kalos Houses, and 7 are the Alola Houses.

Well, we're just about at the exam site, if you're that interested then I suggest you pass and become official students. Good luck!"

On that note Professor Yucca disappeared through the main doors leading to the control room of the airship before anyone could say anything. Outside the window Zayne saw that they were landing near the open center of the academy. It's a gorgeous looking academy Zayne thought to himself. I guess we're taking the written exam somewhere inside. There was a small thud signaling that the aircraft touched ground and soon after the loud noise of the engines slowly quieted as they powered down. The giant door opened letting sunlight illuminate the inside of the aircraft almost blindingly and the walking platform lowered to the ground. At this moment Zayne mentally berated himself and thought, crap, I didn't bring a writing utensil, hope they provide one. He then proceeded to exit, the same as everyone else.


	6. Chapter 6

As Zayne exited the airship the view of the academy began to take shape in his sight. There stood a large state of the art building with many large glass windows. In front of the building stood a giant water fountain with the statue of Arceus standing on top of a jewel where the water flowed out from. It was truly a sight to behold. All the applicants now gathered in front of the fountain and Professor Yucca stood before them.

He then began to address them whilst still smoking his pipe, "Inside the academy is where you will take the first part of your exam. However...be aware that not all of you will proceed to the second part." Professor Yucca said with a sudden hint of darkness in his voice.

He then proceeded, "If you do not pass the first part of the exam, which you will find out if you did or did not, then you will be escorted back to the ferry immediately and return from wherever you came from."

"That sounds a bit harsh doesn't it?" Leo whispered his comment to the others.

Professor Yucca continued, "Now, there are 221 of you applicants this year so inside the academy building 13 rooms have been prepared for the first part of your exam. Each room will house 17 of you. Without further delay, follow me."

The atmosphere around the applicants were a mix of nervousness, anxiety, confidence, and curiosity, but the crowd remained silent after Professor Yucca's address. They all followed him inside the building which was even more impressive looking than the outside.

The doors that lead to the entrance were giant, at least a good 20 feet in height and made of thick glass with a steel frame. When they opened they revealed a colossal entry hall. It was very spacious and the many giant glass windows stacked above and along the walls allowed the sunlight to marvelously illuminate the room. There were several balconies high above them, each higher than the next that overlooked the hall where they stood at. Near the entrance were stairs that lead up to the first balcony and from there other stairs that connected each ascending balcony subsequently. An elevator was situated near the bottom of the stairway.

On the far end of the wall opposite of the entryway was a large flat screen that had a large *Welcome Applicants* displayed on it. In the middle of the hall stood 7 large obelisks made of glass that displayed a mix of numbers and names on all four sides. At the very top of the obelisk displayed the name of one of the 7 major regions.

As they continued to follow Professor Yucca to the right stairwell he briefly read what was displayed on one of the sides of the 1st obelisk which had the name Kanto on top. He was able to make out what the words at the top were which was House Rankings, and below it displayed the number 1 with the name Rin Ravenwood next to it.

They followed Professor Yucca up the stairs to the first balcony that had a hallway connected to it with classrooms. There were two hallways that connected this side of the balcony to the balcony on the far-end of the building opposite them. Next to the end of the stairs they were on were another set of stairs ascending to the balcony on the next level.

Everyone turned their attention to Professor Yucca when he stopped before the hallway filled with classrooms.

He turned to them and said, "Alright, you will see that there are 8 classrooms here. I told you before that there will be 13 classrooms so after we fill up these rooms, I'll take the rest of you across to the other balcony where we have more rooms. When you get into your rooms you will see papers and pens on 17 of the desks. Take a seat at one of those desks and do not touch them until I say you can. Now then, you and you and you...oh and you...yes you 17, go into the first classroom."

Professor Yucca continued to appoint the people closest to him into rooms until 17 had been picked and followed this pattern until all the applicants were placed in rooms.

"Alright! We get to be in the same room!" Leo exclaimed to Invel and Melanie.

Leo then gave a sad and worrying expression and said, "It sucks that Zayne couldn't be in the same room with us."

"It can't be helped. Even though we stood next to each other he happened to be the 17th person in room 7." Said Invel.

"Yea yea" grumbled Leo.

Meanwhile Zayne observed the room he was in. State of the art desks. Really, state of the art everything. Hm, a large screen at the front of the room, white paper on 17 of the desks and a silver pen next to the pieces of paper. Zayne took a seat at one of the desks, as did the others in the room with him. Not long after the screen at the front of the room turned on showing Professor Yucca.

 _Ahem._

He cleared his throat, then said, "Alright, now that all of you are seated let me give you the rundown. First, please take one of your pokeball's and place it on the desk in front of you. This will be the one pokemon you are allowed to use for both the first and second part of the exam, assuming you make it to the second exam stage."

Everyone did as he said. Zayne thought for a second before deciding. Metagross, my most trusted partner, no doubt about it. He placed Metagross's pokeball on the desk like everyone else.

"Now, listen carefully, you may not leave the building, if you do, you will be automatically disqualified."

In room 8 where Leo, Melanie, and Invel were, Leo and the others had the same thought. Leave the building? Wait, this is a written exam right? Do they mean we can't leave after we finish the exam? Do we need our pokemon to take the exam with us?

Professor Yucca continued, "On your desk is the exam paper and the pen with which you must use to complete the exam. You are not allowed to directly damage any of the school property or you will be disqualified."

Leo and the others had another similar train of thought. Damage school property? This isn't making any sense at all.

"Now then, I hope you have all been paying close attention. I have told you everything you need to know on how to complete the first part of the exam. The time limit is 1 hour and your pen will also display the time limit as well."

Professor Yucca looked down at his watch on his hand then said, "Oh, well looks like it's lunch time, I gotta go. You may now touch the pen and paper at your desk. Good luck!" Professor Yucca finished his address to the applicants and the screen turned black.

Not a moment later red numbers appeared on the screen showing the time limit, one-hour which morphed into 59 minutes and 59 seconds...58….57...The clock was running down. All applicants in all rooms took hold of their pens and flipped over the paper with everyone having the same reaction, or at least a similar one. Surprise. Confusion. Anxiety. Lost. Zayne looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. It was blank.


	7. Chapter 7

The paper in front of Zayne was blank. Well, almost blank. There was a spot in the top right corner that indicated the spot to write your name. Zayne observed the room around him and noticed that many of the participants in his room were panicking. He shrugged and wrote down his name on the piece of paper, Zayne Aniketos.

The pen has a nice feel to it he thought. Not very light, but not too heavy. Weighted to the touch so your hand knows it's there.

Wait...he had a moment of realization. The paper seemed a bit heavier than normal too. Almost as if the paper was also weighted. I could attribute the weight of the pen by the clock placed in it, but why would the paper be weighted. No...encrypted? It wasn't out of the range of possibilities. But why encrypt the paper. So you can put the paper in a machine to correct the test faster? He thought.

But there aren't any questions. The only thing written on here was Name and I filled that out already. What's the catch...Why do we need our pokemon to help with this part of the exam?

Many others in the room were fidgeting in their seats.

Some stood and were talking loudly and angrily to the screen hoping to get a reply about the exam. Zayne looked at his pen. Approximately 54 minutes left. He took a deep breath...then let it out. Okay Zayne, think he mentally said to himself. It's just like the puzzles he had to solve when exploring ancient ruins, caves, and what not with his dad. What did Professor Yucca say, there must be a clue or a hint in his words.

Zayne replayed through his memories. Before we were assigned rooms he didn't want us to touch the paper or the pen. Probably because he knew it was blank and students would ask questions which he didn't want to deal with in person.

He told us to choose one pokemon we wanted to help with the first and second exam. I can assume that I will need Metagross. If I assume correctly then I should assume I'll encounter pokemon throughout the academy building.

Wait!

Pokemon?

Throughout the academy building?

Professor Yucca said not to leave the building, but that doesn't mean I can't leave the room! He also said we can't directly damage property belonging to the academy. I should assume this building and everything in here to be Atlas property so best to play it safe and not have Metagross make any direct attacks. We'll have to play it a bit defensively and try to be evasive.

The Professor also said we will need the paper and pen to complete the exam. If I leave the room I should take them with me, the pen will be helpful in keeping track of how long I have left, no wonder it shows the time limit, so we can move about freely around the academy. But if I leave the room, what should I do and where should I go?

He checked the time limit on the pen which read 49 minutes.

A second later and Zayne felt his stomach growl. Man I'm hungry. I skipped breakfast this morning and haven't had lunch yet. LUNCH! He mentally shouted. Professor Yucca said it was lunch time.

Several flashes of memory flew by Zayne's head of what the Professor said.

("I hope you have all been paying close attention. I have told you everything you need to know on how to complete the first part of the exam….Please have those ready for you will need them to enter the airship which will take you to your first exam….The second exam will consist of a scavenger hunt and survival exercise...Oh, by the way, it is almost lunch time, unfortunately you won't be provided food so you'll have to get it on your own somehow").

That's right! Ever since we met Professor Yucca he's been telling us about the exam which means that there may be hints of how to complete the exam in the words he spoke before we got to the academy. He only mentioned the first exam, he didn't describe what it would consist of like he did with the second exam. This means that the first exam isn't technically a written exam at all.

And he mentioned lunch several times. Come to think of it, I've been traveling on the ferry for 3 days. The crew and the Captain knew we were applicants because our invitations acted as the tickets to get on board. The crew and the Captain were the ones who gave the applicants their room number and every morning, if we wanted breakfast we'd have to ring up room service as the dining areas in the morning time were only open to the passengers who paid for a ticket. This morning on the ferry when I called room service for breakfast they apologized and said that they weren't serving that morning, and that we would be arriving at The Argos Islands before noon where I would be able to get something to eat. I thought it was strange at first but didn't press the issue. So the Captain was an accomplice in prepping the stage for the first exam thought Zayne.

Then...a cafeteria perhaps? Zayne pondered. Maybe I need to go to the place where they serve food here. I need a map. Zayne looked around the room. People were scattered around the room. Many of them by the screen trying to figure out if they could call back Professor Yucca. Some looking around the room trying to figure out if the exam questions were somewhere hidden around. Zayne didn't see a map in the room so he stood up, placed the pen in his pocket, opened his backpack, took out a book and carefully placed the encrypted paper inside to help minimize as much damage to the paper as he could just in case of unexpected situations, then placed the book back inside his pack and slung it over his shoulders. He grabbed Metagross's pokeball and slipped out of the room.

He pulled the pen out quick to glance at the time limit, it read 41 minutes.

"Tch, time's really flying by." Zayne said.

He walked passed room 8 and started making his way to the balcony.

Huh? Zayne? Leo thought to himself.

Leo caught a glimpse of Zayne walking pass the window of room 8 where he, Melanie, and Invel were in. Room 8's condition wasn't any better than that of room 7. People irritated, angry, lost, confused, all sorts of emotions running high.

"Hey, Melanie, Invel." Leo said in a worried and curious tone.

"What is it?" Asked Melanie in a frustrated tone.

Invel just turned his head and looked in Leo's direction.

"Well...I just saw Zayne walk pass our room." Leo said.

Invel and Melanie looked at each other with a curious expression, then looked back at Leo. The two of them walked towards him until they were close to hear each other's whispers.

"What? Are you sure?" Inquired Melanie.

"Yea, I'd recognize him from a mile away." Said Leo.

"Where would he be going at this time?" Invel wondered out loud. "Wait, can we even leave the room?" Invel inquired. He placed his hand underneath his chin and put on a thinking expression.

"And what about the exam?" Melanie pondered out loud.

"Wait!" Invel said. "Now that I think about it, Professor Yucca never said we couldn't leave the room. He just said we couldn't leave the building."

"Wait, you're right!" Melanie exclaimed.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's leave, I bet Zayne figured out how to beat the exam!" Leo said excitedly.

"I agree!" Melanie said excitement also present in her voice.

Leo and Melanie began to walk towards the door when Invel spoke up, "Stop!"

Both Leo and Melanie stopped dead in their tracks and turned towards Invel. They both inquired at the same time, "What?"

Invel fixed his glasses in the almost villainous looking way and said, "Aren't you two forgetting something."

Leo and Melanie looked at each other with a look of confusion, then looked back at Invel and replied, "No...I'm pretty sure we have everything."

Invel pointed to their desk and said, "I count 3 things you forgot. One, your pokeball which you should be ashamed of that you forgot."

"Crap!" Leo and Melanie both exclaimed.

"I was so anxious to meet up with Zayne that I forgot." Leo said embarrassed and ashamed. Melanie nodded in agreement and both Leo and Melanie went to grab their pokeballs.

Invel then continued, "Now secondly and thirdly, you need to bring your exam paper and pen. Remember, Professor Yucca said we needed them to complete the exam. Now I don't know what he meant by needing them but I'd bring it with just in case."

Melanie and Leo nodded seeing the logic in Invel's explanation and grabbed them before all three of them walked out of the room together. Other students noticed but didn't care, too concerned about themselves and thought that the three of them decided to drop out.


	8. Chapter 8

As Leo, Invel, and Melanie stepped out of the classroom they turned to their left towards the direction of the balcony, the same direction Leo saw Zayne walk.

"Guys, lets run, we need to catch up before he gets too far and we can't find him anymore!" Exclaimed Leo.

The trio ran towards the balcony and stopped when they reached the end.

"Where do you guys think he went?" Asked Melanie.

"I'm not sure. We're on the second level so he could have gone up or down." Invel replied.

"Guys?" Inquired Zayne on the lower level near the entryway.

"Zayne!" Leo shouted and waved his hands towards him.

Not a moment later 3 Magnetons dropped down from the 5th level and were now eye level with the trio.

"Run!" Shouted Zayne.

The 3 of them stood confused for a moment until they saw electric sparks begin to form amongst the 3 Magnetons. Leo, Invel, and Melanie screamed "Ahhh!" And began to run down the steps towards the entryway where Zayne stood. Zayne threw Metagross's pokeball in the air and said, "Metagross, in position!"

A brilliant light shined forward over the trio as they ran towards Zayne. A form took shape within the light and soon revealed a Metagross with a white colored body and yellow colored X in the front. The 3 Magnetons released a thunderbolt attack not a second later directed towards the trio who just made it past Metagross. Without any words spoken or movement from Zayne, Metagross moved into action and a green/turquoise like barrier negated the thunderbolt attack with ease. Not a moment later Metagross's eyes started glowing blue and all three Magnetons smashed into the other effectively knocking them unconscious.

"Meta." Metagross said signaling that the problem was taken care of and floated over to Zayne who placed his hand atop of Metagross, and with an approving smile said, "I couldn't have thought of a better way to handle it myself."

Metagross closed its eyes with a happy expression and responded with a "Meta" before re-entering its pokeball. The trio stood dumbstruck near the base of the stairs where Metagross had just shielded them from 3 thunderbolt attacks.

Zayne turned his attention to them and said, "Well, you guys just gonna stand there all day?"

The trio walked over to Zayne still holding their dumbstruck expressions.

Melanie was the first to speak, "W-Was that...Was that a Shiny Metagross!"

Zayne responded bluntly and said, "Yea."

"That's soooo cooool!" Leo stated enthusiastically.

"How incredibly rare." Invel commented.

"You've got to bring out Metagross again!" Leo said excitedly.

"Well, as much as I'd like to kick back and talk about our pokemon we're kind of on a time crunch." Zayne said.

He then took out the silver pen from his pocket observing the timer which now read 37 minutes.

"Oh, right." Leo said bluntly.

"So, did you figure out how to pass the exam?" Invel asked.

"I have a pretty good idea." Said Zayne.

The trio waited for a moment hoping Zayne would elaborate, however, when the moment just turned into continued silence Leo finally said, "Uh...So what do we do?"

Zayne looked at them with an expression of inquiry and then said, "Wait, you guys left without figuring it out? Not even a little bit?"

Leo, Invel, and Melanie had a sheepish and embarrassed look on their face when Melanie spoke up and said, "W-Well, it's not like we didn't figure anything out."

"But we could use some guidance and a little more info." Invel said right after Melanie.

"Yea, like a lot more info would be good." Leo chimed in after Invel.

Zayne looked at them with a semi-dumbstruck expression then said, "Mmmm, alright. I hate to just give you guys the answer so why don't you tell me what you were able to figure out and i'll fill in the rest."

"Sounds fair to me." Said Melanie.

Invel began telling Zayne that they found out they needed to use the pen and paper at their desk to complete the exam. Invel also told Zayne that they figured out they could leave the room, but not the building.

"And that pretty much sums it up." Leo said after Invel finished telling Zayne what they discovered.

"So...you didn't figure out much then huh?" Zayne said bluntly.

Melanie gave a pouting look and Leo just shrugged. Invel fixed his glasses trying to look cool about the fact that he was able to figure out at least that much. Zayne sighed then gave them a run down of what he was able to come up with.

The trio looked at each other before saying, "That kind of makes sense actually."

Leo looked at Melanie and said, "Soooo, guess it wasn't a written exam and that means that getting 80% to pass doesn't mean anything." Leo teased.

Melanie looked at him and said, "Hey, that was what I heard okay! Besides, just forget I said that, it doesn't matter now anyways."

She then turned her head towards Zayne with a sour look on her face from Leo's comment and said,"So why are you down here anyways Zayne?"

"Over there near the giant screen across from the entry way is a map of the academy." Zayne said as he walked over to the map. "I'm checking out where the food areas are."

"Well, it looks like it's on the 4th floor according to this map." Said Invel and pointed to where he spotted the symbol for food on the map.

"It also looks like there is one on the 12th level." Observed Zayne.

"Should we check out the closer one first?" Leo asked.

"Probably." Melanie replied.

"So should we head up there?" Inquired Leo.

"Yea, but those Magnetons came from the 5th level, do you guys think we might be ambushed like that on the 4th level?" Melanie said.

"I'm not sure, but we should definitely expect some sort of obstacle." Said Zayne.

Zayne then started to walk up the stairs as the trio followed close behind him.

"Make sure you have your pokeballs ready just in case. Oh, and I think the reason those Magneton's dropped down earlier is cause you guys were too loud so try not to make any loud noises." Zayne advised.

The trio nodded silently and readied their pokeball. As they trekked up the second flight of stairs Leo asked, "How come we don't take the elevator?"

Zayne then replied, "Cause if there were obstacles, the elevator would be a prime target to set up a trap and having to deal with an unfavorable situation inside a metal rectangular box doesn't seem appealing nor ideal."

Leo nodded at Zayne's logic and continued to follow him silently. They reached the fourth level balcony and could see that instead of a rectangular hall with classrooms, it was a semicircle hall with food booths set up along the wall and the center area was filled with chairs, tables, and booths for students to sit and eat. What was intriguing however was the fact that there were a bunch of small devices with a small piece of paper attached to them. Zayne and the others walked over to one, but as they did a steel cage closed off the food area from the balcony.

"Wh-What The!" Leo said in a startled voice.

"Hey! How are we supposed to get out now!" Melanie exclaimed.

"Perhaps the devices in here will give us a clue." Invel said keeping his calm.

Zayne nodded in agreement and picked up one of the devices. It was about the size of a pokedex. He took the piece of paper attached and opened it. Inside were instructions that read _To activate device, hold device above an exam paper, press and hold the green button until scan is complete. Follow instructions from device afterwards._

"Huh...it doesn't explicitly say how to raise the steel cage." Invel said.

Zayne just gave a small shrug and took out his exam paper from his backpack. He did as the small paper instructed and held the device above his exam paper, then pressed the green button. A second later a green light appeared over his exam paper and scanned up and down before making a beeping sound and blinked off.

"Is that it?" Leo asked.

"I don't know." Invel replied.

A moment later and a voice from the small device Zayne held spoke saying, "Acknowledged. Welcome Zayne Aniketos. Please state your name, age, and pokemon of choice for exam 1 and for exam 2."

Zayne had a curious expression on his face and said, "Zayne Aniketos, 16, Metagross."

The machine spoke again, "Acknowledged. Zayne Aniketos. 16. Metagross. Registration complete. Please proceed to floor 12."

The machine then made a clicking noise and became silent.

"Uhh, what was that about?" Melanie asked.

"I don't know, but I think we should all do the same." Invel suggested.

He then picked one up and followed the same procedure as Zayne. "Invel Vincent Alseif, 17, Ninetails." Invel said when the machine asked him to state his name, age, and pokemon.

Melanie did hers next and said, "Melanie Starling, 16, Dragonite."

Leo followed and said, "Leonidas Stormholt, 16, Sceptile."

Zayne grabbed his pen out of his pocket to check how much time was left, the time limit read 24 minutes. Alright, Zayne thought, now how do we get out of here.

"Hey guys, help me look around the room for anything that might help us get out of here, but don't break anything." Zayne said.

The others nodded in agreement and started searching around. As they were searching for a way out Zayne started thinking to himself, if the balcony is cut-off from the dining area then how would others be able to get in and grab their own device to proceed. Wait, then perhaps the key to get out of here is on the outside, while others are trapped inside, others on the outside could hit a switch and lift the cage. And if you were stuck here on your own, you could use your pokemon to hit the switch for you. Zayne walked over to the metal cage and placed his pokeball through the steel cage, then said, "Metagross, find a switch that might lift this cage."

A light emitted from the pokeball and out through one of the holes of the metal cage.

Metagross appeared on the other side of the cage and said, "Meta."

Metagross looked to its left and right and saw nothing of use. Metagross floated above the cage but still saw nothing. Metagross came back down and said "Gross." Indicating that it found nothing of use.

"Hey, what about this." Leo said pointing to a switch on the wall.

He flipped the switch, however all it did was turn the lights off in the dining room area.

"Nevermind." Leo said and flipped the switch back turning the lights back on.

"Hey, there is this lock switch on the wall here but I don't know where the Key for it is." Melanie said.

"No point if there isn't a key for it." Replied Invel.

There's got to be another clue or hint that would help Zayne thought. Or maybe...Zayne had an idea. Zayne slipped the device through one of the holes of the metal cage and said, "Metagross, take this device up to the 12th floor and see if you can find anything useful there."

"Meta." Metagross replied in agreement and took the device making its way to the 12th floor.

As Metagross passed the 6th floor a flamethrower attack flew straight towards it. Metagross noticed and dodged expertly to the side. There, by the 6th floor balcony stood several Houndooms. They all gave a loud growl before charging towards Metagross. In mere seconds Metagross was surrounded by the several Houndooms. Metagross remained calm and had an expression of annoyance as the task it was trying to complete was interrupted. The Houndooms gave a loud roar before all of them blasting a flamethrower attack at Metagross. Zayne and the others could hear the growls and roar of the Houndooms.

"Tch, darn it, Metagross could be in trouble and we're stuck here!" Leo exclaimed.

"Wait, we could send our pokemon to help." Invel realized and said aloud.

"Don't worry about it." Zayne said calmly.

The trio looked at him with a look of confusion.

"How come you're so calm about this?" Inquired Leo.

"Hm...Metagross and I have been together for a long time. We're like two sides of the same coin. I have faith that Metagross will complete its task. Besides, against the opponents we have faced in our time, a few Houndooms won't even be enough to give Metagross a good stretch." Zayne said confidently.

Metagross stood motionless, a green/turquoise barrier shielding it as the multiple flamethrower attacks collided and bounced off it with ease. The Houndooms, frustrated that their attacks were getting them nowhere ceased their attacks to regroup, however Metagross took the opportunity to lift them all up with the power of psychic and smashed them against one another as if they were caught in a flurry of tornadoes. A few seconds later all the Houndooms were knocked unconscious. Metagross set them back down on the balcony softly and continued its way to the 12th floor. When Metagross made it there it found an empty reception desk with a large fancy looking basket next to it. There was a piece of paper with writing on it and an arrow pointing to the basket. Metagross dropped the device given to him by Zayne into the basket. The basket made a beeping noise and underneath the basket, a small key was dropped to the floor. Metagross picked up the key with psychic and quickly returned to Zayne.

"Meta!" Meagross exclaimed signaling that it was able to find something. Zayne praised Metagross for its hard work and took the key. Zayne observed the key and found that it fit the lock switch in the wall Melanie had pointed out earlier. He placed the key in it and turned. He then flipped the switch and the metal cage slowly lifted while the key disappeared as if it were teleported away.

"Finally! Freedom!" Exclaimed Leo.

As all four of them walked out, the cage dropped back down behind them. Soon after Leo, Invel, and Melanie disappeared and reappeared inside the dining area behind the cage.

"Hey! What's the big idea here!" Leo said.

"Perhaps we must each proceed individually by using the method Zayne had." Invel said.

"What a pain." Melanie said.

"My guess is that we're being monitored and that the academy has a lot of pokemon on hand who can use teleport to force those who try to bank off the work of others to do it themselves." Said Zayne.

"Lets just get this over with." Leo said and called out Sceptile to follow the same procedure as Zayne.

Invel and Melanie following suit. Once they all made it out they proceeded to the 12th floor where they came upon the empty reception desk. To the left of the reception desk were two large double doors. As they approached the reception desk a beeping noise could be heard coming from the pens. Zayne and the others took out their pens and a small green light was being emitted from it shining towards the double doors.

"What the…" Leo said confused.

"I think we should follow the light." Zayne said.

They opened the doors which revealed a giant room that could easily seat 500 people and a large stage at the front. There were a lot of round tables with 6 chairs per table. Zayne's pen pointed towards a pen holder on one of the tables. He returned Metagross to its pokeball before taking a seat at the table and placing his pen in the pen holder. Not a moment later a voice was heard from the pen holder.

"Congratulations Zayne Aniketos and Metagross on passing the first part of the exam. Please take a seat and relax. Instructions of how to proceed will begin once the time limit is up."

There was a click sound and the voice could no longer be heard.

"Cool!" Leo said.

Leo, Invel, and Melanie placed their pens in their own pen holder and were told a similar message. Zayne took in a deep breath and let it out. He looked around the room and wondered if they were the first ones who m-made...it? As Zayne looked around 2 pens on other tables caught his eye. One on the table next to his and the other on the far end opposite of him. If those two pens are in the pen holders then there must be two people who already made it, but where are they? Zayne thought to himself.

Not a moment later he and the others heard a door open from below the right side of the stage. Walking towards them was a boy with red hair, fair skin, and pale eyes with a tint of gold. He didn't seem to notice them at first but as he got closer he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked up.

"Hmm? Well, looks like there were a few more competent souls laying around somewhere." The boy said with a sarcastic grin on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the character Karma Akabane. He is a character from Assassination Classroom and belongs to Yusei Matsui. I borrowed his character Karma for my story like Zeno from Hunter x Hunter. I like the character Karma so I wanted him to be in the story. I also do not own the character Killua Zoldyck who I also borrowed for my story. Killua Zoldyck is a character from Hunter x Hunter and belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi.**

* * *

"Who are you?" Melanie asked with a hint of annoyance.

She didn't like the look this red haired guy had on his face when he made his comment.

"That's Karma Akabane." A new voice said.

Everyone but Karma turned to look at the direction of the new voice which came from behind the stage curtains. The curtains fluttered a bit as they slightly parted when a figure stepped out in front of them. He had spiky white hair, pale skin and blue eyes. His features were strikingly sharp. Melanie took a moment to absorb the situation in front of her. These two strangers who appeared in front of her were devilishly handsome. In fact, if she thought about it, Zayne was still pretty much a stranger to her too, she only met him this morning. Throw him in the mix and there were 3 devilishly handsome guys in front of her with looks that could kill. She berated herself for having trailing thoughts before refocusing. Zayne didn't miss the fact that Killua wore a necklace with a ring sized Z-ring looped through it while Karma wore a Z-power ring on his left hand.

Invel fixed his glasses in that villainous looking way and directed his question at the new figure on the stage, "And who are you?"

The figure jumped down from the stage about to answer but before he could, Karma chimed in and said, "Killua Zoldyck."

Killua glared at Karma with an annoyed expression.

Karma only responded by saying, "And now we're even."

Killua let out a small breath with a "Teh" sound as he walked over to them.

Zayne glanced over to the pen on his desk which was still counting down the time, it read 13 minutes.

"I was in room 12, and it looks like it might stay that way, what about you guys?" Killua asked curiously.

"Room 7." Zayne responded.

"Then you three are from room 8." Karma said.

"Huh? How did you know that?" Leo inquired.

"Let me guess." Zayne said. "The tables are ordered by room number. 6 chairs per table means there must be 3 tables dedicated to each room, that's why our pens directed a light to only one of the pen holders on the tables."

"Bingo!" Karma said. "So, you're the leader of the group, huh?"

Zayne looked Karma in the eye ignoring the comment he made and said, "You're from room 6. I didn't see you when I walked past the room, seems like you figured out how to beat the exam almost immediately."

Karma gave a devilish smirk and said, "Oh, it wasn't that hard."

Leo, Invel, and Melanie refrained from saying anything not wanting to admit out loud that they probably wouldn't of passed the first stage if it wasn't for following Zayne.

Melanie looked around the room and said to no one in particular, "There isn't a lot of time left, do you guys think anyone else will show up?"

At that moment the large double doors opened showing several others walking into the room. One of the new faces, a boy said "Finally! That took forever!" And took a seat to where his pen directed him. As the newcomers went to their seats another wave of applicants came filing in. After a few more minutes no more applicants came through the doors. Chatter could be heard throughout the room. Zayne, Leo, Invel, Melanie, Killua, and Karma remained unmoved since the arrival of the new faces and were observing who made it from which rooms, and how many of each. 5 people from room 1, 2 from room 2, 8 from room 3, 1 from room 4, an astonishing 15 from room 5, their focus was brought away from observing the room when they all heard a loud sound of thunder from the stage.

Everyone turned their attention to the stage. All the timer on the pens read 0. The curtains began to slowly draw open and revealed Professor Yucca at the center standing next to a microphone.

Professor Yucca spoke at that instant and said, "All applicants, please take your seat."

Everyone in the room walked back to their assigned seats, and as they did so the room darkened with only the lights on the stage illuminating the room.

Professor Yucca began to address the room saying, "I'm sure by now you all realize that the exam is not what it seems."

Leo whispered to Invel and Melanie who were also at his table and said, "You can say that again."

"Shhh." Melanie whisper shushed to Leo.

Leo gave a pouting look before redirecting his attention to Professor Yucca.

"As of this moment, all those who failed to make it to this point are being escorted back to the ferry. Now I'm sure you're all wondering what the point of this elaborate test was. The point of a written exam is to test your knowledge and recall ability. Even critical thinking ability. However, many written exams fail to assess the skill of an individual to utilize knowledge, recall, and critical thinking. The purpose of this exam is like a live version of the written portion. Instead of writing down on a piece of paper how you would prevent a flamethrower attack, show us that you can prevent a flamethrower attack. Knowing and being able to use what you know are two different things. Instead of telling us on a piece of paper that you understand type advantage and disadvantage, show us that you can use that knowledge to your benefit if you were presented with that situation. You may know that you are at a disadvantage in a pokemon battle, but how can you overcome that disadvantage? Instead of writing down on paper how you would escape a locked room, show us that you have the wits about you to do so. When you are backed into a corner, whether in a battle or in life, will you panic or will you overcome it. You can't convey that on a piece of paper, so show us when you are in a situation where you are disadvantaged, how did you overcome the situation? To the 73 of you in this room, congratulations on passing the exam. As of this moment, you are official students of Atlas Academy. You all have true potential!"

There was a moment of silence throughout the room as they absorbed what Professor Yucca said. Thoughts floated around people's heads such as: They were all students now? What about the second exam? Holy they had made it! Is this a trick? I'm starving. But after a few more moments of silence, loud cheers could be heard from some students in the room.

The lights slowly turned back on in the room as Professor Yucca began to speak again, "Now then, it's a bit late but to congratulate you all on your success, lunch will be served at your table."

The cheers were now louder than before as shouts of "Alright!" and "I thought I was gonna die of starvation." Filled the room. Soon after the double doors opened as a bunch of waiters and waitresses came filing in carrying trays of food and drinks to each table.

As everyone began to dig into the food Professor Yucca said, "Please eat your fill. Although you are now accepted as official students of Atlas Academy you must still be sorted into your houses."

Everyone diverted their attention away from their food to Professor Yucca. Zayne then recalled what Professor Yucca had mentioned about the dormitories and houses back on the airship before they arrived at the academy entrance.

Professor Yucca then continued saying, "As I told you before, the second part of the exam will consist of a scavenger hunt and survival exercise. Once you all finish your meal we will return to the airship and transfer to one of the adjacent islands where your second exam will be held. You will be given more details on that later, for now, do enjoy your meal."

Professor Yucca then exited behind the stage. Everyone decided not to ponder about the second exam and continued to eat. About 45 minutes later, as everyone seemed to finish their meal, someone different appeared on stage. He was an older gentleman. He seemed to be somewhere around his mid 50's and had wrinkles above his forehead. He stood around 5' 10" and had golden colored long hair that flowed down below his waist. His golden colored beard was also a great length that flowed down to his chest. He had a slightly sideways cross scar on the left side of his forehead. The old man wore a golden/brown haori which had the Japanese character of Headmaster on the back. Zayne noted that although he may seem old, by no means did it take away from his dominating presence. He did not look frail, far from it.

The old man gave a fake cough catching everyone's attention, he then began to speak, his voice deep and low and said, "Welcome to Atlas Academy. I am the Headmaster, Adrastos Argus Leander."

A few whispers could be heard, "Woah, it's the headmaster." "He looks intimidating."

The whispers died down as the headmaster continued, "I've come to congratulate you all on making it this far and perhaps impart a few small words of advice. There will come a time when you are no longer able to grow on your own, and it is during those moments that you have each other. In order to break the limitations of one's own self, may you find the answers from one another. Struggle and continue to struggle and perhaps one day, you will find that the struggle you began with is no longer the same struggle you currently find yourself dealing with. I see great potential in each and every one of you and expect great things from you all."

As soon as the headmaster finished speaking more cheers could be heard from some students and clapping from everyone else. The headmaster walked off and disappeared from view as Professor Yucca reappeared on stage and said, "Students, please take a look at your pen."

As everyone did so they saw that the time no longer read 0, but 48 hours.

"Please take your pen and follow me." Professor Yucca said as he walked towards the double doors.

Everyone did as he said. As Zayne fell in step with the group following Professor Yucca he found himself walking next to Karma and Killua. None of them saying a word to the other. As they approached the airship, Leo, who happened to be walking behind them broke the silence and said, "Ah! Zoldyck!?

As in the famous dragon master Zeno Zoldyck?" At that moment the walking platform from the airship descended.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for keeping up with the story so far! I do hope you enjoy it so far. I forgot to mention that when there are parenthesis (...) it will signal that a character is recalling something like a memory. Without further ado, on with the story.**

* * *

Killua looked at Leo and said, "Oh, so you've heard about my grandpa?"

"G-Grandpa!?" Leo exclaimed.

"What? You made the connection, why do you sound surprised?" Killua said.

"W-Well, I mean, I don't know, I wasn't expecting you to actually say it was true." Leo replied.

Killua just shrugged and said, "It's not like I was trying to hide it."

"Point taken." Leo said.

At the mention of the name Zeno Zoldyck, Zayne recalled a memory from when he was 12, his pseudo dad mentioned the name.

("Where were you?" Zayne inquired as his guardian walked through the door of their cabin they were temporarily staying at. "It's nearly midnight." Zayne continued.

"Sorry about that, I hadn't planned to come back so late but I had to meet up with someone first." Said Zayne's guardian.

"Huh? Meet up with who?" Zayne inquired.

"His name is Zeno Zoldyck. He's a legendary dragon master." Replied Zayne's guardian).

So Killua's grandpa is the one from back then Zayne thought to himself as he recalled the memory. Everyone began to board the airship and once inside, it took off towards one of the adjacent islands. As everyone settled in Professor Yucca stood in front of the control center doors with a woman next to him wearing a white lab coat and long slightly curled pink colored hair that flowed down to her stomach. She stood at a height of 5' 7" and looked to be somewhere in her mid 30's.

Professor Yucca then said, "This is Professor Azalea. She'll be telling you about the second part of the exam. Good luck!"

Without saying anything else he disappeared into the central control room of the airship.

"Well now, just 73 of you huh?" Professor Azalea said to no one in particular.

She seemed like she was contemplating something, then said with a confident voice, "Argos Island is not made of one island, but several islands more aptly named The Argos Islands. Argos is the name given to the largest island and is where the main campus of Atlas Academy is located. The name of the island in which the second exam will take place is called Aeaea.

The purpose of this exam is to sort you into your houses. There are 7 houses that make up Atlas Academy. The Kanto House, The Johto House, The Hoenn House, The Sinnoh House, The Unova House, The Kalos House, and The Alola House.

On the island are 10 tokens for each of the 7 houses making a total of 70 tokens. Three of those tokens are wild card tokens. Your task is to find a token and bring it to the far end of the northern-most part of the island where you will find a building.

Once in the building you are to remain in the building. Someone will be there to greet you. The token you bring to the building will determine which house you will be placed in.

If you bring a wild card token you are allowed to choose any of the houses you wish to join. In addition to finding the wild card token you will automatically be exempt from taking the final part of the exam. If you find a token that you do not want you are allowed to trade with other students, steal the token of other students, battle for it, there are many ways to go about it, however, you may not harm each other in anyway that would put each other's lives at risk.

You can also only bring one token with you to the building, if you violate this rule you will be expelled on the spot. The time limit is 48 hours as you see on your pens. Those will keep track of the time limit for you.

Although you have been officially accepted as students of Atlas Academy, that does not mean that you can't be expelled from the academy. Failure to bring a token to the designated building by the end of the 48 hours will result in your immediate expulsion.

While being able to fend for yourself and having the skill to find your own token is admirable, it is also a skill to be able to make friends and work in teams to help one another find tokens so many of you can pass. Since the time limit is 48 hours, you must be able to procure your own food in that time unless you have made it to the building.

You are not allowed to leave the island or you shall be immediately expelled. You are allowed to use the same pokemon you used for the first part of the exam." As Professor Azalea wrapped up her explanation to everyone the airship landed somewhere in the center of the island.

"Now then, does anyone have any questions?" Professor Azalea said.

There were only indistinct chatters. The atmosphere, Zayne noted, felt much different than it did for the first exam. Instead of nervousness or worry or anxiety there was an air of confidence and excitement. Maybe even arrogance? Zayne thought.

"Hmm, so the first exam weeded out all the weaklings." Zayne heard Karma say.

"Looks like it." Replied Killua to Karma's comment.

Those two are rather blunt, but there's truth to what they said Zayne thought silently to himself.

"You two seem pretty close. Are you friends?" Melanie inquired to Killua and Karma as she stood next to Leo.

Killua and Karma looked at each other through their peripherals and replied at the same time, "No."

Both annoyed that they replied the same thing, they followed up with saying, "We just met."

They both made an annoyed expression and turned to look at each other, then said, "Stop copying me!"

The next following words they spoke were random in an attempt to break the cycle but failed miserably as they both said, "Hey!

Jinx!

Seriously!

Stop!"

They stared at one another as if ready to tear each other apart. At that instance Melanie laughed out loud and Leo stared in amazement at their ability to say all the same exact words. To Zayne's surprise the exchange between the two was amusing. His lips curled up into a smirk and before he knew it, he let out a small laugh. This surprised Melanie, Leo, and Invel who was ignoring the whole situation until now. Though they didn't know Zayne for very long he didn't look like the type to laugh at stuff like this.

As Zayne's laugh died down he spoke, "Sorry, but with my background, I've never experienced a situation like this."

Killua and Karma relaxed their composure.

Killua then said, "What do you mean?"

Zayne then said, "Nothing really, it's just that I've never had an opportunity to be around people my age like this. It's different, but not as bad as I thought it would be."

Everyone was interrupted from their conversations and own thoughts as Professor Azalea said, "Alright, everyone off!"

People started filing out of the airship and once everyone made if off Professor Azalea said, "You may begin as soon as the airship and I are off the ground."

Not a moment later Professor Azalea disappeared inside the airship and the walking platform retracted. The engines gave a powerful thrust and the airship left the ground and flew off with an impressive speed. At that instance everyone began to scatter all throughout the island and the 48 hours began counting down. The island was riddled with trees and rocky terrain. On the flight over Zayne noted that most of the coast along the island was a sandy beach. The only people who had remained unmoved while everyone else scattered was Zayne, Leo, Melanie, Invel, Killua, and Karma.

"So...where should we look first?" Leo asked.

"It doesn't matter." Invel replied.

"Yeah, the tokens can be anywhere, we should just pick a direction and look." Melanie said.

"What token should we look for guys? I mean it determines what house we get into right?" Leo said.

"I think we should just be concerned about finding a token and getting placed. It'd be nice if we all found matching tokens but let's worry about that later." Invel said.

"Well, I'm off." Killua said as he walked into the forest disappearing from view. Karma was already walking off as well and waved in the air with his back facing them, he then said, "Later."

Zayne looked over to the spot where Killua and Karma walked off to and then started to walk towards the northwest direction. Leo, Invel, and Melanie were about to follow when Zayne stopped and said, "Wait."

The trio stopped in their tracks. Zayne turned around so he was facing them, then said, "I think the three of you should do this without me."

Invel was about to protest but was cut off by Leo saying, "He's right."

Invel looked at Leo and said, "What do you mean?"

Leo looked Zayne in the eye with a determined look and said, "I'm the one who fought Zayne on the ferry. There are things that can only be realized through a battle. During that battle, I realized that I was weak. I promised myself that I was going to get stronger but this whole time all I've been doing was following Zayne around."

Invel and Melanie had a slight downcast look as they knew what Leo said was true.

Leo then continued, "Zayne's trying to tell us something. He's saying that if we're going to survive at this academy, we need to prove it. Not to him, but to ourselves. We have no right to brag about being accepted as students cause if we didn't have Zayne, we wouldn't even be here."

Zayne gave Leo a look of approval surprised that he actually caught on to what he intended.

Leo finished by saying, "Don't worry about us Zayne, we'll make it through no matter what."

Zayne gave a small nod in approval and said, "I know you guys will."

Zayne turned and walked into the forest not looking back. That was surprising he thought to himself. I didn't think that Leo would be the one to understand my intentions, he certainly matured a lot in the short time since the ferry. He continued walking through the forest looking for anything that could resemble a token. It would of been nice if they showed us what these tokens looked like. The forest was pretty dark. There'd be light from the sun shining through opening patches of the trees here and there but the forest was definitely an easy place to get ambushed.

Zayne heard a noise and stopped in his tracks just as he stepped over a fallen tree. He turned and looked to his right where the noise came from. It sounded like rustling. After a moment of silence he looked up and saw a Nuzleaf.

"Nuzleaf." It said with a confident look in its eyes.

A Nuzleaf huh? Zayne thought.

At that moment, more rustles from the surrounding trees could be heard and 6 more Nuzleaf appeared.

"Scratch that. Make that 7 Nuzleaf." Zayne said to himself.

They all had a mischievous expression on their faces. Zayne then felt a slight chilling wind and his eyes widened. He quickly jumped and rolled over to the left side and looked up. A Shiftry stood where he was just a moment ago.

"Shiftry." It said with confidence.

Zayne got up from his crawling position due to his jump roll earlier and said, "Metagross."

As soon as Zayne called out its name Metagross appeared beside him.

"Meta." Metagross said and glared at the Nuzleaf and Shiftry with a look of disdain for attempting an ambush on Zayne.

"It's alright, relax." Zayne said to Metagross.

Metagross softened at Zayne's words but didn't let down its guard.

"Shift, Shiftry!" Shiftry shouted which rallied the Nuzleaf by its side.

"Well, it looks like they want a ba-" Zayne stopped short of his sentence when he noticed that one of the Nuzleaf was holding something.

"A token!" Zayne said a bit surprised.

"Metagross, we didn't start this battle it but looks like we'll have to finish it." Zayne said.

"Gross!" Metagross replied with confidence.

"See that token in that Nuzleaf's hand?" Zayne asked Metagross.

Metagross nodded.

"That's the goal." Zayne said.

Metagross gave an acknowledging "Meta!"

"Trryyyy, Shiftry!" Shiftry cried out.

All the Nuzleaf except the one holding the token jumped into the trees and made their way to where Zayne and Metagross were swiftly and expertly. The 6 Nuzleaf then jumped down at them with a pound attack. Metagross moved in front of Zayne and put its front two legs up blocking all 6 attacks effortlessly.

"Leaf!" The Nuzleaf shouted and jumped back.

They all prepared a razor wind attack and let it loose. Zayne let out a small smirk.

"Gross." Metagross said as it floated in the air using its 4 powerful legs and deflected all 6 razor wind attacks as they flew towards Metagross one by one. The deflected attacks causing damage to trees and the ground as they made contact with the surrounding area.

"Nuz-Nuzleaf!" The Nuzleaf gave surprised looks and took a step back in surprise.

"SHIFTRY!" Shiftry shouted.

The Nuzleaf regained their composure and jumped in the air launching a seed bomb attack.

"Metagross, flash cannon!" Zayne commanded.

"Meta!" Metagross nodded and replied.

A silver white light quickly formed in front of Metagross and shot forward against the barrage of seed bomb. Flash cannon ripped through the seed bomb attack as if it wasn't there and dealt a devastating blow to the 6 Nuzleaf. The collision of flash cannon and the 6 Nuzleaf caused a white light to fill the forest and less than a second later the light disappeared as the 6 Nuzleaf lay unconscious on the ground.

"Gross." Metagross said as it made quick work of the Nuzleaf.

"Sh-Shiftry?" Shiftry said with worry in its voice.

Shiftry realizing it made a mistake in underestimating its opponents jumped into one of the trees along with the Nuzleaf holding the token.

"Not so fast." Zayne said.

Before Shiftry and Nuzleaf could make their escape Metagross lifted them in the air with Psychic.

"Shift-try." Shiftry said unable to move.

"Nuz." Nuzleaf said with an apologetic look in its eyes.

Zayne walked over to them and said, "Remember, we didn't start this battle."

He grabbed the token out of the Nuzleaf's hand and said, "I'll take this, and we'll call it even, deal?"

Nuzleaf responded quickly with a "Leaf, Nuzleaf!"

Zayne nodded towards Metagross giving it the signal that it could release them from psychic which Metagross did. Zayne looked at the token. It was about an 8" model of a champion tower that had Kanto inscribed on it. He placed the token in his backpack, grabbed a super potion out of it, and turned back to Shiftry and Nuzleaf who both had an apologetic look on their faces.

"Hey, no hard feelings. I got what I was looking for anyways." Zayne said.

Shiftry and Nuzleaf lifted their heads with a happy expression that Zayne was not angry with them.

Zayne lifted the super potion in his hand and said, "If you don't mind, i'd like to heal your friends." Zayne said.

Shiftry and Nuzleaf nodded their heads. Zayne took the super potion and sprayed the injurious sites of the 6 Nuzleaf. Not long after all 6 Nuzleaf were up and happily moving again.

"There, all better." Zayne said.

"Nuzleaf! Shiftry!" The Nuzleaf and Shiftry happily replied in unison.

At that moment a loud and powerful screech could be heard that sounded pained and angry. Zayne plugged his ears with his hands as the screech was so loud. The Nuzleaf and Shiftry shouted with fear and scattered away disappearing into the forest leaving Zayne and Metagross. Zayne looked at the direction the screech came from and saw a Skarmory fly overhead, only the color wasn't normal. It was dark. Much too dark. And it looked almost as if a stream of shadow was being emitted off its body.


	11. Chapter 11

Zayne started running after the strange looking Skarmory as fast as he could while Metagross followed close behind him. It was flying Westward at an incredible speed. He ran and ran occasionally looking up and checking if Skarmory changed directions, which thankfully it didn't cause it would be a pain keeping track of all the directions it might fly and focus on not tripping in this damn dark forest. His eyes scanned the forest ahead as he continued his sprint.

Rock!

He noted and jumped just in time.

Branch!

He saw and expertly ducked his head underneath while not losing pace.

Skarmory paused in the air and let out another deafening screech, "SKAAAAAR!"

Zayne plugged his ears with his hands as he continued running attempting to close as much distance as possible while still dodging obstacles in the way.

Left! Right! Left! Zayne quickly glanced up to check Skarmory's status. Skarmory began flying again but Zayne was able to catch a glimpse of something that hung around Skarmory's neck.

"Damn!" He shouted, slightly out of breath.

"It's flying even faster than before!" He said continuing his sprint and not bothering to pause and catch his breath.

As he continued to run through the forest, the dense treetops were starting to thin out. Skarmory once again paused in the air and screeched in agony. In that moment powerful blades of wind began to gather around it, only...they were black in color with tints of purple.

Zayne took notice of this and his eyes narrowed in a concerning expression.

"What is that move?" Zayne said.

"Gross!" Metagross said to Zayne warning him that there was a giant hole up ahead.

Zayne nodded his thanks to Metagross, still sprinting. The hole's about 30 meters away he thought, and it looks pretty wide.

He did a quick glance of the area around the hole.

I'll lose time going around it. I'll have to go over it with Metagross's help he thought.

At that moment, Skarmory flew over the giant cavity in the ground and released the powerful dark wind attack it created. The attack spread outwards like a vicious and powerful tornado. As a consequence of that attack the item that hung around Skarmory's neck came loose falling straight down towards the middle of the gaping hole.

Zayne ran as fast as he could trying to reach it in time.

I won't make it he thought.

Zayne jumped in the air, hands pulled in towards his chest, knees bent, feet close together so they were touching, and then shouted, "Metagross! Now!"

Metagross took its powerful right leg, put it up to Zaynes feet and swung Zayne hard towards the giant hole as it shouted, "Gross!"

At the same moment that Metagross swung Zayne, he positioned his body to be horizontal with the ground and simultaneously pushed off of Metagross's right leg further increasing his momentum and reducing as much wind resistance as he could. He soared through the air like a powerful arrow released from its bow string. The item that was around Skarmory's neck continued to fall as he continued to soar. Inch by inch, second by second. Time seemed to slow down in the world. As he crossed the border between the safety of the hard ground and the darkness of the abyss that was the giant hole beneath him.

He stretched his hand forward as the mysterious item fell to his level of height above ground. Unfortunately at his current position, it was still a bit too far away. The item continued to descend out of his reach.

Seriously! Zayne thought loudly to himself.

At that moment he had an idea.

"I hope this works." He said to himself, still soaring through the air now completely above the dark hole.

He expertly and swiftly slipped off his backpack and held it by the end of the strap. He aimed and swung his pack through the air towards the falling mysterious object. With skill and a little bit of luck...or a lot of luck he thought, his pack made contact with the object aptly knocking it up in the air causing it to fly across the hole to the other side where it hit a tree with a _clink_ sound before landing in a pile of dirt, leaves, and rocks on the ground.

A few moments later and Zayne flew by past the boundary that marked the end of the giant hole and back over to the safety of the ground. He contracted his horizontal position into a balled up one bringing his knees to his chest and folded his arms and backpack in front of them. He then performed a front flip midair. As his body started to flip into the vertical position he fanned out his arms and legs effectively adding wind resistance which slowed him down just enough so he could torque his body to the left doing a 180 right before he landed on the ground.

He dashed over to the mysterious object and picked it up right as Metagross made it over the hole. Without saying anything they both continued to dash towards Skarmory. As Zayne had guessed, the distance between him and Skarmory was even greater than before due to temporarily stoping and backtracking to where the object fell. The trees were now fanned out and the hard ground became sandy.

Thoughts ran through Zayne's head. The beach! Once Skarmory flies past the beach I won't be able to follow it anymore or i'll be expelled for leaving the island!

"Tch." Zayne said and grit his teeth.

As he ran he opened his pack and placed the mysterious object inside, then slipped on his backpack.

"Metagross." Zayne said looking Metagross in the eyes beside him.

Metagross gave Zayne an acknowledging nod as Metagross got behind him. Metagross placed its 4 legs around Zayne as Zayne gripped on as tight as he could.

"Meteor mash!" Zayne commanded.

"Meta!" Metagross said as a sparkling blue aura surrounded them and not a moment later, Metagross along with Zayne flew towards the beach in a twirling and spinning motion at breakneck speed. Metagross arrived at the beach in no time and immediately ceased the attack. Zayne let go of Metagross's leg and tried to stand but couldn't due to the sheer speed at which they were moving, twisting, and turning.

As he fell forward Metagross used psychic and placed Zayne on top of its flat head which he lay there energyless. They heard a screech from Skarmory as it flew overhead with a ferocious speed and out towards the open ocean. Zayne could only give a groggy look in Skarmory's direction. His surroundings were blurry as he was seeing double of everything.

"Okay...not the best idea i've had to date." Zayne groaned on top of Metagross's head as he turned on his back.

"Gross." Metagross said in agreement.

Zayne took his backpack out from under him and opened it. He took the mysterious object out from inside and studied it. After a few moments observing the object his eyebrows furrowed.

"It's a torture collar." Zayne said in disgust.

The collar had metal rods sticking out from them that seemed to induce pain. Zayne turned the collar over to the front.

"What's this." He said softly.

On the front of the collar was some sort of symbol. It was a small circle inside a square inside a triangle inside a larger circle. Zayne stared at the symbol for a few seconds longer before his stomach gave a loud growl.

"Meta." Metagross said.

Zayne looked down at Metagross and gave a small laugh before saying, "You're right. No use in thinking about it on an empty stomach. After all the running and jumping we did I'd be surprised if we weren't famished. Let's find some food. What do you say pal?"

"Gross!" Metagross said approvingly and walked off towards the forest with Zayne still lying on Metagross's head. As they re-entered the forest Zayne decided to tease Metagross a bit and said, "You do know where you're going right bud?"

Metagross immediately stopped in its tracks and pretended to shove Zayne off its head.

"Woah! Alright alright, just thought I'd give you a hard time." Laughed Zayne.

"Gross." Metagross said with a hint of annoyance at Zayne's playful banter before resuming its walk in search of food. A few steps later and Metagross stopped.

"Hm? Why'd you stop? Everything alright buddy?" Zayne asked.

"Meta...Gross." Metagross said sheepishly.

Zayne got up from his lying down position into a sitting one. Then said, "Wait...you really don't know where to get some food huh?"

"Gross." Metagross said and nodded.

Zayne laughed and padded Metagross on the head lightly, then said, "That's alright, I think I saw some pecha berries and sitrus berries on the way over here."

"Meta." Metagross nodded approvingly, then started off back the way they came.


	12. Character Chart

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, the pokemon anime, manga, or the games. I also do not own characters from hunter x hunter and assassination classroom.**

 **Author's Note: Hey Everyone, if you've been following the story so far I know that there've been quite a few character introductions already and as the story progresses, if you want to know certain descriptors about the characters, it might be hard to try and backtrack that info.**

 **So I compiled a list of either major characters or characters that will have more than just a fleeting role in the story here. I call it the Character Chart.**

 **Here you will find things about a character that was listed in the story and even things about the character that I didn't put in the story. For example, I only briefly described Leo, Melanie, and Invel in the story but here you will find a slightly more detailed description. As the story progresses and reveals more about the characters, I will update that here in the character chart.**

 **I'll probably alphabetize by character name eventually but for now, here is a rough sketch of the character chart.**

* * *

 **CHARACTERS:**

 **Zayne Aniketos  
Occupation: **Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Kanto **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 6' 0"  
 **Hair:** Two block black hair cut. The front of his hair is just short above his eyes and swept slightly to the right.  
 **Body Type:** Defined slender build. 6-pack abs. Defined muscles but not overly muscular. Light tan.  
 **Eye Color:** Rare ruby red eyes.  
 **Pants:** Black skinny jeans.  
 **Shirt:** White T-shirt. Medium-long black bomber jacket left un-zipped with the sleeves rolled up just before his elbows.  
 **Shoes:** Black and red with a pokeball symbol on the side.  
 **Accessories:** Black single-strap backpack slung over his right shoulder with red zippers. Has a black wrist band on his left hand with 3 small ruby's embedded on the left, bottom, and right side of the band with the top holding a keystone in it. Black necklace with a silver key hanging at the end. Red Ruby belt with black outline on the border, 3 black pouches on left side of belt, 6 pokeballs on right side of belt.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Shiny Metagross** (LV. ?) Can Mega Evolve.  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Protect  
2\. Psychic  
3\. Flash Cannon  
4\. Meteor Mash

 **Arcanine** (LV. 92)  
 **Ability:** Intimidate  
1\. Extreme Speed  
2\. Flame Wheel  
3\. Fire Blast  
4\. Smokescreen

 **Tyranitar** (LV. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Lapras** (LV. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Garchomp** (LV. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Torterra** (LV. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

* * *

 **Leonidas Stormholt (Leo)  
** **Occupation:** Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Hoenn **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 5' 9"  
 **Hair:** Messy Blonde Hair  
 **Body Type:** Fit. 4-pack abs. Tan.  
 **Eye Color:** Green  
 **Pants:** Forest Green Joggers  
 **Shirt:** Black T-shirt  
 **Shoes:** Dark green shoes with 3 white lines on the side.  
 **Accessories:** Black backpack with brown pockets. Green watch on left hand.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Swampert** (LV. 65)  
 **Ability:  
** 1\. Sludge Bomb  
2\. Hydro Pump  
3\. Earthquake

 **Gigalith** (LV. 56)  
 **Ability:** Sand Stream  
1\. Smack Down  
2\. Bulldoze

 **Raichu** (LV. 72)  
 **Ability:** Static  
1\. Quick Attack  
2\. Electroweb  
3\. Thunderpunch

 **Golem** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Talonflame** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Sceptile** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

* * *

 **Invel Vincent Alseif  
** **Occupation:** Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Hoenn **  
** **Age:** 17  
 **Height:** 6' 0"  
 **Hair:** Blue Hair. Undercut style. Bang lengths reach eyes.  
 **Body Type:** Healthy and fit. A little on the lanky side. Slender. Fair skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Blue  
 **Pants:** Blue dress pants. Slim fit.  
 **Shirt:** White button up dress shirt. Sleeves rolled back.  
 **Shoes:** Front half of shoes is blue, back half is white.  
 **Accessories:** Glasses with blue rectangular-like frame. Blue skinny tie. Brown Belt. Blue and white single-strap backpack.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Ninetails Alolan Form** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

* * *

 **Melanie Starling  
** **Occupation:** Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Hoenn **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 5' 5"  
 **Hair:** Brown hair. Tied in bun style while still long enough to flow down past her shoulders. Tan.  
 **Body Type:** Fit and petit.  
 **Eye Color:** Green  
 **Pants:** Blue jean shorts.  
 **Shirt:** White tank-top.  
 **Shoes:** Tan colored shoes  
 **Accessories:** White hair band that holds her bun in place. White backpack.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Dragonite** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

* * *

 **Karma Akabane  
** **Occupation:** Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Johto **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 5' 10"  
 **Hair:** Short red hair.  
 **Body Type:** Slender and Fit. 6-pack abs. Pale skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Pale eyes with tints of gold.  
 **Pants:** Dark grey dress pants slim fit.  
 **Shirt:** White dress shirt, not buttoned all the way. Black blazer.  
 **Shoes:** Black shoes.  
 **Accessories:** Slim fit black tie loose on his shirt. Z-power ring on left hand.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Honchkrow** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Sucker Punch

 **Zoroark** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** Illusion  
1\. Night Daze  
2\. Copycat  
3\. Focus Blast

* * *

 **Killua Zoldyck  
** **Occupation:** Student of Atlas Academy **  
House:** Kalos **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 5' 11"  
 **Hair:** Spiky white hair  
 **Body Type:** Defined muscles and Fit. 6-pack abs. Very pale skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Blue Eyes  
 **Pants:** Navy Blue skinny Jeans  
 **Shirt:** White sleeveless hoodie  
 **Shoes:** Navy Blue shoes with white laces  
 **Accessories:** Silver necklace looped through an actual ring size Z-ring.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Luxray** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Double Team  
2\. Roar

 **Zeraora** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Drain Punch

 **Crobat** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Drapion** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Marshadow** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

 **Elektross** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?

* * *

 **Professor Yucca  
Occupation: **Pokemon Professor at Atlas Academy, Head of Io Research Labs **  
** **Age:** 40  
 **Height:** 6' 2"  
 **Hair:** Messy light blonde hair. Small stubble around chin.  
 **Body Type:** Slender. Light skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Grey Eyes.  
 **Pants:** Black pants  
 **Shirt:** Black shirt. Green haori with black rims over black shirt with the kanji for wisdom on the back.  
 **Shoes:** Green and black shoes.  
 **Accessories:** Slender and thin brown cane. Dark brown pipe.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Deoxys Normal Form** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Psychic

 **Deoxys Defense Form** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Protect  
2\. Torment  
3\. Thunder Wave

 **Deoxys Speed Form** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Giga Impact

 **Deoxys Attack Form** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Zap Cannon

* * *

 **Headmaster Adrastos Argus Leander  
Occupation: **Headmaster of Atlas Academy **  
** **Age:** 57  
 **Height:** 5' 10"  
 **Hair:** Golden colored hair that flowed down below his waist. Golden colored beard flows down to his chest.  
 **Body Type:** Fit. Tan/brown skin color.  
 **Eye Color:** Brown  
 **Pants:** Black pants  
 **Shirt:** Black T-shirt. Golden/brown haori with the Japanese character of Headmaster on the back.  
 **Shoes:** Brown shoes.  
 **Accessories:** Sideways cross scar on top of left forehead.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Entei** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Sacred Fire  
2\. Sunny Day  
3\. Solar Beam  
4\. Iron Head  
5\. Stone Edge

* * *

 **Professor Azalea  
Occupation: **? **  
** **Age:** 35  
 **Height:** 5' 7"  
 **Hair:** Long slightly curled pink colored hair that flows down to her stomach.  
 **Body Type:** Fair skin color.  
 **Eye Color:** Hazel.  
 **Pants:** Dark blue professional skirt.  
 **Shirt:** Dark Blue T-shirt. Long white Lab coat over shirt.  
 **Shoes:** Dark Blue heels  
 **Accessories:** Pink lipstick. Pen wedged on top of left earlobe and hair. Wears Lanyard of Lab ID around neck. Carries a blue folder with her.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Zeno Zoldyck  
Title: **The Legendary Dragon Master Trainer  
 **Occupation: ?**  
 **Age:** 67  
 **Height:** 5' 2"  
 **Hair:** White spiky hair, white fu manchu beard.  
 **Body Type:** Pale skin. Strong and fit body.  
 **Eye Color:** Gray  
 **Pants:** Dark Purple pants with white stripes.  
 **Shirt:** Purple and White Garb that has the Kanji for Dragon Master on it.  
 **Shoes:** Dark black shoes  
 **Accessories:**

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Rayquaza** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Draco Meteor

* * *

 **Ethan Gold**  
 **Title:** Former Champion of Johto  
 **Occupation:**?  
 **Relationships:** Engaged to Lyra Silver  
 **Age:** 24  
 **Height:** 5' 9"  
 **Hair:** Black.  
 **Body Type:** Thin/Fit body type. Fair skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Gray  
 **Pants:** Black Capris  
 **Shirt:** Black Shirt, Red Jacket  
 **Shoes:** Red and gray shoes  
 **Accessories:** Wears a backpack and a black and gold cap. Blue Pokegear on left hand.

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Typhlosion-Exbo** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:** ?  
1\. Inferno

* * *

 **Dawn Platinum**  
 **Title:** Top Coordinator  
 **Occupation:** Pokemon Researcher  
 **Age:** 24  
 **Height:** 5' 5"  
 **Hair:** Blue-Gray  
 **Body Type:** Thin/Fit body type. Light/Creamy skin.  
 **Eye Color:** Blue-Gray  
 **Pants:** Black/Pink Dress  
 **Shirt:** Black/Pink Dress. White Lab Coat when working at the lab.  
 **Shoes:** Pink boots and sometimes pink shoes.  
 **Accessories:** Cream colored bag. White beanie with a pink pokeball symbol on her head.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Serena Y**  
 **Title:** Grand Duchess  
 **Occupation:** Pokemon Researcher  
 **Age:** 21  
 **Height:** 5' 6"  
 **Hair:** Honey-Blonde  
 **Body Type:** Thin/Fit body type. Fair Skin  
 **Eye Color:** Blue-Gray  
 **Pants:** Red Skirt  
 **Shirt:** Black Tank-Top White Lab Coat when working at the lab.  
 **Shoes:** Black Shoes  
 **Accessories:** Pink Bag. Pink hat with white sunglasses.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Lyra Silver**  
 **Title:** Champion  
 **Occupation:** Champion of Johto  
 **Relationships:** Engaged to Ethan Gold  
 **Age:** 24  
 **Height:** 5' 4"  
 **Hair:** Brown  
 **Body Type:** Thin/Fit body type. Fair Skin  
 **Eye Color:** Brown  
 **Pants:** Blue shorts  
 **Shirt:** Red shirt with blue overalls.  
 **Shoes:** Red Shoes  
 **Accessories:** Cream-Yellow Bag. White hat. Red bowtie over hat.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Professor Amaryllis Mars  
Occupation: **? **  
** **Age:** 37  
 **Height:** 5' 9"  
 **Hair:** Long red hair  
 **Body Type:** Tan  
 **Eye Color:** Brown  
 **Pants:** Black Shorts  
 **Shirt:** White T-Shirt. Red Coat.  
 **Shoes:** Black heels.  
 **Accessories:** Red lipstick. Science book. Glasses.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Rin Ravenwood  
Occupation: **Student at Atlas Academy, Student Champion of Kanto  
 **House:** Kanto  
 **Rank:** House Rank 1, Overall Rank 3 **  
** **Age:** 16  
 **Height:** 5' 6"  
 **Hair:** Long black hair  
 **Body Type:** Slender, Light skin  
 **Eye Color:** Emerald  
 **Pants:** Black Leggings, Black mini skirt  
 **Shirt:** Red long sleeve with 3 buttons, first two buttons undone  
 **Shoes:** Long brown leather boots  
 **Accessories:** Purse

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Articuno** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Blizzard

* * *

 **Tobias  
Occupation: **Student at Atlas Academy, Student Champion of Sinnoh  
 **House:** Sinnoh  
 **Rank:** House Rank 1, Overall Rank 1 **  
** **Age:** 17  
 **Height:** 5' 11"  
 **Hair:** Grayish Blue  
 **Body Type:** Slender, Fair skin  
 **Eye Color:** Light Green  
 **Pants:** Gray Pants  
 **Shirt:** Gray Shirt. Red cape covering  
 **Shoes:** Black shoes  
 **Accessories:**

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Natural Harmonia Gropius (N)  
Occupation: **Student at Atlas Academy, Student Champion of Unova  
 **House:** Unova  
 **Rank:** House Rank 1, Overall Rank 2 **  
** **Age:** 19  
 **Height:** 6' 1"  
 **Hair:** Tea Green  
 **Body Type:** Slender, Light/pale skin  
 **Eye Color:** Green  
 **Pants:** Beige Pants  
 **Shirt:** White mid-sleeved shirt, black undershirt.  
 **Shoes:** Green shoes  
 **Accessories:** Black and white bracelet on right hand, Blue/black pendant around neck. White and black cap.

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Ren Cowan  
Occupation: **Student at Atlas Academy  
 **House:** Kanto  
 **Rank:** House Rank 2, Overall Rank 10 **  
** **Age:** 17  
 **Height:** 5' 11"  
 **Hair:** Light Red  
 **Body Type:** Slender, Fair skin  
 **Eye Color:** Golden  
 **Pants:** Tan/Brown Skinny pants  
 **Shirt:** White dress shirt. Sleeves rolled up to elbows.  
 **Shoes:** Brown shoes  
 **Accessories:** Z-ring on right hand

Known Pokemon So Far:

?

* * *

 **Owen Blackwood  
Occupation: **Unknown Dark Organization **  
****Age:** 41  
 **Height:** 5' 8"  
 **Hair:** Black  
 **Body Type:** Slender, Tan  
 **Eye Color:** Olive Green  
 **Pants:** Green  
 **Shirt:** Black t-shirt, black lab coat  
 **Shoes:** Brown shoes  
 **Accessories:** Z-ring on right hand

Known Pokemon So Far:

 **Thundurus Therian Forme** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**?  
1\. Sludge Wave  
2\. Protect  
3\. Thunder  
4\. Psychic  
5\. Smart Strike

* * *

 **Andronicus  
Occupation: **Unknown Dark Organization **  
****Age:** 25  
 **Height:** 6' 2"  
 **Hair:** Dark Blue  
 **Body Type:** Toned/Slender, Fair skin  
 **Eye Color:** Silver  
 **Pants:** Black  
 **Shirt:** Dark Purple shirt, dark black cloak  
 **Shoes:** Black  
 **Accessories:** Z-ring on right hand

Known Pokemon so far:

 **Giratina** (Lv. ?)  
 **Ability:**? 


	13. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, so there's going to be some scene changing in this chapter. Just a bit but I thought about how I would signal the scene being changed so you guys aren't surprised at the sudden switch in the middle of reading. If you see the the number "888" then that means the scene is changing.**

 **You'll also find that Professor Yucca's Pokemon is a bit unique and used 5 different attacks here. Of course this will all be explained as the story progresses.**

 **Alright, back to the story.**

* * *

Flying above the open ocean was the airship that had carried the 73 students to their second exam site on Aeaea Island. Professor Yucca stood by the window looking back at the direction of the island as the airship slowly cruised westward over to Nike Island. As he stared out the window he pulled out his pipe and started to light it. He placed the pipe on the left corner of his mouth and inhaled, then exhaled. A plume of smoke diffused into the air around him as he did so. It was pretty silent inside without the chatter of students he thought to himself. He leaned to his right a bit putting some weight on his cane that supported him. Though his cane seemed a bit thin it was quite sturdy.

The doors leading to the central control room opened as Professor Azalea walked in. She had remained in the main area of the airship after sending the students off until now. The control room was a decently sized space. She saw Professor Yucca by the window smoking his pipe. Professor Yucca repositioned his cane and body as he turned to see who walked in. The light in the room gave a glint off of the small psychic Z-crystal that was embedded on the front of his cane.

He let out another puff of smoke before saying, "Yo, welcome back."

Professor Azalea looked in his direction and said, "Ah, you're still here I see."

Professor Yucca gave a small chuckle and replied, "You say that as if you spite me."

"Just a little bit." She replied back.

"Come now, you aren't salty about our battle record are you?" He replied.

"I wasn't even thinking about it." She said.

"Oh." He raised his eyebrows slightly.

At the mention of their battle record a memory of their last battle flashed through her mind. The last time they had a match was last week at Valhalla Stadium on Nike Island. They and the other teachers occasionally do battle with each other to improve themselves and exchange new battle tactics and whatnot.

Professor Yucca gave another puff of smoke and said, "Well, that aside, what did you think about the new students this year?"

She was brought out of her own thoughts at Yucca's question.

"Hm...I see a few promising souls I suppose." She said.

She hadn't bothered to really observe them. Her mind has been on something else recently. As he was about to say something he caught a glimpse of something out the window from the peripherals of his eyes. He turned towards the window and narrowed his eyes trying to get a clearer look. Something dark was heading their way.

Azalea noted his behavior and said, "Is something wrong?"

As a few more moments of silence passed Azalea started to walk towards Yucca, interested to see what had caught his attention.

Before she made it to where he was she heard him whisper with a dark tone in his voice, "So the rumors are true."

Azalea stopped in her tracks and said, "What is it?"

He only replied saying, "See for yourself."

And stepped out of the way for Azalea to see through the window. She raised her eyebrows surprised and said, "It can't be. A shadow pokemon! I thought the rangers in Almia had successfully put an end to that project."

At that moment Yucca began walking out of the control room.

Azalea turned to him and said, "Are you going?"

He only paused to answer her, "I must stop it."

As he continued on his way out he addressed the pilots and said, "Steady the airship!"

The pilots gave a salute from their seats and shouted, "Yes Sir!"

Azalea stared at the control doors as Yucca walked out of the room. After a few seconds passed she turned her attention back out the window, a small frown on her face.

 **888**

"Hm? A Cave?" Karma noticed as he was walking past some tall bushes. Could be a good spot to hide the token he thought.

He pushed passed the bushes and walked towards the cave. He took out his multidex, a multipurpose pokedex that had information on pokemon and a built in navigation system eliminating the need for a pokenav. It also contained several other functions as well. He turned on the flashlight mode. A light illuminated the darkness of the cave as Karma walked in taking note that it was larger than it seemed. He saw several Zubat and Golbat sleeping in the cave as he continued to go deeper. Karma noticed that the air was becoming increasingly humid.

There must be water somewhere in this cave he thought.

The scenery of the cave slowly changed from complete darkness to just darkness, but now with low visibility. There must be an opening in the cave somewhere that's letting light through he thought.

As he turned, the cave wound to the left. He followed the winding cave and turned the corner seeing a giant and spacious cavern. A large lake divided the end of the cavern from where he stood, and the cavern that continued on the other side. He estimated the lake to be a good 30 meters across. Small cracks above the ceiling of the cave let light shine through which made the water surface sparkle.

"Honchkrow." Karma said.

Honchkrow came out of its pokeball at the call of its name.

"Krow!" Honchkrow said as it stretched its wings and fluttered into the air.

Karma held onto one of Honchkrow's legs as it flew him across the lake to the other side of the cave. Once he landed he heard a splash behind him. He turned to look, but whatever it was had dropped back below the water. He narrowed his eyes as if daring whatever it was to attack. When it didn't resurface he decided to ignore it and continued on exploring the cave, but as if on alert, he decided to leave Honchkrow out of its pokeball.

 **888**

Professor Yucca walked over to the stairs that led to the roof of the airship. He walked up and entered a 4 digit code that opened the door leading to the roof outside. He slowly walked out onto the roof. The wind blowing his hair and haori to the side as they were high up in the air. His pipe in his left hand, cane in his right. Once he got to the center of the roof he turned to face the direction at which Shadow Skarmory was flying towards them. He brought his pipe to his mouth then grabbed a strange looking pokeball from his pocket. He clicked the button in the middle enlarging the pokeball.

It was completely black in color. The middle of the ball was white where the top and bottom hemispheres separated. On the top of the strange pokeball were the symbols of 9 pokemon types and on the bottom of the strange pokeball were the symbols of the other 9 pokemon types representing all 18 pokemon types. He casually threw the pokeball in the air and with an unreadable expression said, "Deoxys."

A light escaped the ball and began to take shape in the air. As the light fluttered about enlarged versions of the 18 pokemon type symbols flew in a circular motion around it. The symbols flew in a frenzy in all directions as the light dissipated revealing Deoxys in its normal form. Yucca took another puff of smoke as he waited for Shadow Skarmory to come closer. Deoxys stood in the air waiting patiently.

Shadow Skarmory noticed the two new figures in the air and gathered dark energy around its wings.

Professor Yucca observed the attack and let out another puff of smoke. That's the shadow pokemon move called shadow wave he deduced. As Shadow Skarmory released its attack two torrents of dark waves flew from its wings and combined into one heading straight for Deoxys.

"Psychic." Yucca said.

Deoxys's eyes glowed blue and expertly deflected the shadowy attack upwards into the sky. Shadow Skarmory let out a loud screech before charging towards Deoxys. Deoxys flew up in the air just enough to avoid getting the airship damaged by the battle.

"Skarrrrr!" Shadow Skarmory yelled in frustration as Deoxys continued to dodge Skarmory's strikes.

Professor Yucca continued to observe Shadow Skarmory as it engaged Deoxys in battle.

"Stage five huh…" Professor Yucca said to himself as he let out a puff of smoke.

It's heart has been completely shut off he thought.

Shadow Skarmory paused in the air and gathered up dark energy once again. Blades of dark wind with tints of purple flew around it as it directed the attack at Deoxys.

"Protect." Yucca commanded.

Deoxys transformed into its Defense form and erected a barrier effectively blocking the attack.

"Torment." Yucca ordered.

Deoxys glared at Shadow Skarmory and released a tormenting aura at it. Becoming even more enraged than it already was, Shadow Skarmory attempted the same move but couldn't due to Torment's effect.

"Thunderwave." Yucca said.

Deoxys released an electric current from the crystal in the middle of its body towards Shadow Skarmory. Skarmory tucked its right wing and dived effectively dodging the attack. It quickly recovered from the dive and flew up towards Deoxys, blue light glowing around its body.

Professor Yucca's eyes widened in surprise.

"Impossible!" He said.

"Giga Impact!" He commanded.

Deoxys transformed into its speed form and soon a powerful orange aura enveloped its body. As Shadow Skarmory continued its attacking ascent towards Deoxys, Deoxys flew downwards with incredible speed, force, and ferocity. The two pokemon collided mid-air as a giant cloud of dark smoke filled the air. Only a second had passed when Deoxys appeared on the other side of the smoke. Another second passed and Shadow Skarmory began to descend towards the ocean falling from the sky. It was slowly coming in and out of consciousness.

Professor Yucca stood atop of the airship with an inquisitive and confused look in his eye. He thought back to the blue light that enveloped Shadow Skarmory.

There's no mistaking it, that was the move brave bird. It shouldn't be possible for a Shadow pokemon to use anything other than shadow moves unless the Shadow pokemon had already begun the purification process, but I'm pretty sure it's a stage 5 Shadow pokemon. At stage 1 the pokemon becomes confused, enraged, and violent. At stage 2 they begin to take on a shadowy form. During stage 3 they take a complete shadow form and begin to forget how to use pokemon abilities and attacks. At stage 4 they can no longer use regular pokemon attacks and can only use shadow moves. At stage 5, they emit a dark and shadowy aura and gain enhanced physical attributes such as increased speed and strength.

"Did I mistake it as a category 5 shadow pokemon?" He said to himself.

As he was contemplating, Shadow Skarmory recovered from the fall regaining full consciousness. Deoxys had also fully recharged after launching giga impact. Shadow Skarmory let out a cry of anger directed towards Deoxys as it began to ascend.

Professor Yucca took out a device from his pocket that looked similar to a pokedex only the color was silver and had a gold M on the front. He flipped open the front revealing a screen and pointed it at Shadow Skarmory and said, "Masterdex."

A second later and a host of information appeared on the screen. Professor Yucca quickly scrolled through the data and found the information he was looking for.

"So I wasn't wrong." He said in a low voice. Displayed on his masterdex was Shadow Pokemon Category 5. As Skarmory drew nearer he let out a puff of smoke and said, "What's going on here…"


	14. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Okay, remember if you see 888 that means scene change.**

* * *

Professor Yucca took a few steps forward getting closer to the edge of the airship. He gave one last puff of smoke and emptied his pipe before putting it away. Shadow Skarmory had reengaged Deoxys in mid-air combat but was unsuccessful at landing any hits. Deoxys still in its speed form was able to outmaneuver Shadow Skarmory with ease.

As Professor Yucca watched Shadow Skarmory perform various aerial striking maneuvers he thought to himself, I'm surprised it can still move like that after taking Deoxys's giga impact. He took a quick look at his masterdex one more time scrolling up until he found what he was looking for.

The screen displayed:

 _Prime Skarmory_

 _Lv. 11_.

He had a look of surprise on his face and said, "Prime? The probability of a prime pokemon appearing randomly is extremely low without a trainer. Unless it does have a trainer."

The thought that a trainer would voluntarily turn his pokemon into a shadow counterpart disturbed him deeply. Although it could be that this Skarmory belonged to a trainer, and was stolen from that trainer then forced to turn into a shadow pokemon. At that thought his heart sank a bit. If that was the case then he can only imagine how that trainer would be feeling.

He closed his masterdex and placed it back into his pocket and took out a small circular metal item. I wonder if this calm scent will work he thought.

"Deoxys, psychic!" He said.

Deoxys dodge rolled to the left avoiding a shadow rush attack from Shadow Skarmory and transformed into its normal form using psychic from behind holding Shadow Skarmory still.

Professor Yucca clicked the top button of the device releasing a powerful scent from it and threw it in the air towards Shadow Skarmory. Scents have a powerful effect on shadow pokemon and can help in the purification process. This device and scent is one that Professor Krane and I made ourselves, its potency is two times that of a vivid scent which used to be the most powerful scent one could use on shadow pokemon.

As Shadow Skarmory stayed unmoving in the air the calm scent flew onto its back and continued to release powerful white fumes around it. It should be taking effect now Yucca thought. Ten seconds went by before Shadow Skarmory released a powerful and angry cry.

"It can't be…it didn't work." Professor Yucca said.

A shadowy aura enveloped Shadow Skarmory's wings as it prepared to launch another shadow wave.

Only one choice left Yucca thought. We'll have to defeat it and bring it back to the lab.

"Deoxys, extreme speed." He commanded.

Deoxys transformed into its speed form and instantly disappeared before the dark waves of wind could strike it. Deoxys appeared to the right of Shadow Skarmory who prepared a shadow rush attack.

"Protect." Yucca said.

Deoxys transformed into its defense form and a barrier appeared shielding it from the harsh strike of Shadow Skarmory's shadow rush attack.

"Skaaarrr!" Shadow Skarmory screeched as its body was encased in a dark aura attempting to penetrate through the barrier.

Eight seconds had passed of Shadow Skarmory attempting to breakthrough the barrier but to no avail and ceased its attack preparing to fly up.

"Now, Zap Cannon!" Yucca commanded.

Deoxys transformed into its attack form and a golden/blue orb of static electricity formed by its core. Just as Shadow Skarmory began its ascent Deoxys released the powerful zap cannon at close range which released a loud electrical crashing noise as it made contact right in Shadow Skarmory's chest. A cloud of black smoke appeared around Shadow Skarmory where the attack had landed and not long after, Shadow Skarmory began to fall unconscious towards the ocean below.

"Deoxys." Yucca said.

Deoxys nodded and reverted back to its normal form using psychic to catch Shadow Skarmory and brought it towards the airship. Once Deoxys set Shadow Skarmory down atop the airship Professor Yucca disappeared inside and back to the control room.

"Get us to Tenjin Island now. No exceptions." He said.

A dark and serious tone evident when he spoke. The pilots took a moment to take in his words and realized that when he said no exceptions, he really meant it. The pilots dared not disobey even though they were technically supposed to go to Nike Island and switch shifts. They steered the airship towards Tenjin Island anyways and replied, "Yes sir! Right away sir!"

"Tenjin Island? Were you unsuccessful purifying it?" Professor Azalea said.

Professor Yucca looked at her and said, "It's not a normal shadow pokemon."

"Did you find anything on it that might help us to determine how it came to be?" She asked.

Professor Yucca thought for a moment before saying, "Perhaps you should come take a look. You are an expert on pokemon evolution. To me it looks as if this Shadow Skarmory didn't transformed into a shadow pokemon. It's almost as if it was forced to evolve into one."

"Oh, is that so…" She said.

Azalea and Yucca stared at each others eyes for a few seconds, both with an unreadable expression. In those few seconds a tension could be felt in the air that made the pilots feel uncomfortable. For those few seconds they felt like they were stuck in a cage with a Zangoose and Seviper who were known to be natural born enemies in the wild. They were a bit confused as to why there was tension in the room between Professor Yucca and Professor Azalea since they usually seem to get along well.

Once those few seconds had passed Professor Azalea broke eye contact and gave a deep sigh, she then walked over to Professor Yucca and said, "Well let's have a look shall we?" The tension in the room immediately disappeared.

Yucca gave a small grin and said, "Finally, lets go." The two Professors exited the room leaving the pilots confused about the whole exchange between them.

 **888**

Karma continued walking down the cavernous path with Honchkrow by his side looking for anything that would resemble a token when he noticed the rocky terrain started transforming into a marshy terrain. He stopped as he noticed impressions on the ground. He knelt down to observe the impressions on the soft marshy ground.

"These are human footprints. But there's two sets of them." He said.

Honchkrow perched itself on a rocky ledge as it waited for Karma to finish his observations.

So other students came through this cave before he did huh. Karma thought to himself. He looked up with an interested glint in his eyes and continued to walk on following the footprints. Honchkrow jumped off the ledge it was sitting on and continued in the air above. Honchkrow turned its head to look around the area from the air when it noticed something and said, "Krow!"

Karma looked up and Honchkrow and said, "Hmm...What is it?"

Honchkrow turned its beak and pointed to a giant boulder about 12 ft. tall and said, "Krow, Honchkrow!"

Karma turned to look at the giant boulder and said, "So there's something over there?"

Honchkrow nodded its head and continued to stare in that direction. Karma narrowed his eyes a bit with a curious but cautious expression. He was about to walk over in said direction when he saw a student far on the other side of the marsh walking towards the giant boulder.

"Probably the student who left these track marks." He said.

Then he thought to himself, but it's just him, so who left these second track marks?

"Honchkrow, return." He said as he pointed his pokeball at Honchkrow safely storing the pokemon inside the metal ball. He walked over to a spot nearby that had really tall grass and hid in it keeping his eye on the boulder and the student. He slowly crept through the grass to see what was behind the boulder that Honchkrow was telling him about. He maneuvered his way to gain visual access to the back of the boulder and stopped with a curious expression.

"What...is that pokemon?" He said.

It looks like a Typhlosion, but what's this aura that's emanating off of it Karma wondered.

He saw that the other student was walking slowly towards the pokemon by the boulder. Karma brought out his multidex and turned it on silent mode. He flipped it open and scanned Typhlosion.

A host of information appeared on the screen:

 _Typhlosion_

 _The Volcano Pokemon_

 _Typhlosion obscures itself behind a shimmering heat haze that it creates using its intensely hot flames. This Pokémon creates blazing explosive blasts that burn everything to cinders._

 _Height 5' 7"_

 _Weight 173.5lbs_

 _Ability Blaze_

 _Hidden Ability Flash Fire_

 _Unknown Ability ?_

 _Level Unknown ?_

Karma's eyes widened a bit before a look of confusion was cast on his face.

"Hm? This Typhlosion has a third ability and the masterdex can't read it? It can't even read its level? That's odd." Karma said quietly to himself.

He then looked back at the situation. The other student had stopped and seemed to be doing something similar to him, observing from afar. This Typhlosion was sleeping and emitting some sort of aura that was the same color as it's body color. It seemed to be holding something.

At that moment Karma heard someone walking towards the large boulder from the same direction that he had walked from. As he turned his head he saw a man who looked about somewhere in his early twenties to mid twenties. He had wet black hair and a black and gold cap over his wet hair. His clothes were wet.

Wait, was the splash I heard from earlier his doing, swimming in the lake Karma thought.

He looks strangely familiar, have I met him somewhere before Karma wondered.

The man silently walked past the spot Karma was hiding in and stopped right in front of the strange looking Typhlosion. At that moment Typhlosion awoke and stretched. It then gave the egg it was holding to the stranger.

Wait! Karam thought. I know I've seen him before. His eyes widened at the realization of who it was.

At that moment the other student who was observing from afar stood up with a look of amazement in their eyes.

The student then said, "A-Are you...Aren't you the Champion of Johto? Ethan Gold?"


	15. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Once again, disclaimer notice. I do not own pokemon nor any of the characters from pokemon. I do not own the pokemon games, the manga, nor the anime.**

 **I also updated the Character Chart. Still not alphabetized...sorry. But characters that were introduced were added to the chart as well as any updates on current characters as more things are revealed about them.**

* * *

Ethan looked at the student in front of him with a neutral expression and said, "Former Champion of Johto."

He returned his attention to the egg and opened the backpack, which was the only item he had on him that wasn't wet, aside from his hat. He took an incubator out and placed the egg inside. He then gently placed the incubator back inside his pack and started walking back the same way he entered as Typhlosion followed behind him. The student just stood there still stunned at what just happened.

Karma decided that he didn't need to be so cautious anymore and stood up from his hiding spot which garnered a quick glare from Typhlosion in his direction. Ethan didn't pay Karma any mind as he continued to walk towards the exit. At that moment Karma noticed something in the far corner of the cave moving in the dark. His eyes narrowed to get a better look. He then noticed it flying straight towards them at an incredibly fast pace.

A Crobat? Why is it silver color? Karma thought. His eyes widened as he noticed it preparing an attack.

"Honchkrow, sucker punch!" He said.

Honchkrow appeared and flew forward landing a successful hit first before Crobat could release its technique. Crobat let out a loud screech and staggered backwards a bit before regaining balance.

Ethan narrowed his eyes and whispered to himself, "So the rumors are true."

Karma wasn't able to hear what was said but noticed the air around Ethan had changed. Before he held an indifferent attitude towards the student who addressed him earlier and towards Karma.

Now he had an expression of anger? Karma thought. And maybe a hint of sadness as well.

The Crobat looked as if it were in pain Karma noted and prepared for another attack when Ethan stepped in front of him and said, "I'll take it from here."

Karma stared at Ethan's back and called Honchkrow back.

"Alright." He said.

He decided to let the fact that Ethan interrupted his battle go since he was curious to see Ethan's strange looking Typhlosion battle. Typhlosion stood in front of Ethan ready for battle against the silver Crobat. Crobat screeched and released an air slash attack at Typhlosion who didn't bother to move. The attack collided against Typhlosion creating a bit of smoke on impact, however, Typhlosion didn't look bothered by the attack. Almost as if the attack did no damage to it.

"Inferno." Ethan said.

"Ty-phlosion!" Typhlosion said as it released a giant wave of red, orange, yellow, blue, and white fire at Crobat.

Karma widened his eyes at the attack as he thought to himself, that's not a normal inferno, it looks 10 times more powerful.

Crobat screeched as it was unable to dodge the attack and become unconscious the moment inferno made contact with Crobat's body. Before Crobat could fall to the ground completely Ethan took a pokeball from his pocket and threw it at Crobat. A red light encased Crobat as it disappeared into the ball. It shook once, twice, and then stilled signaling a successful capture. Ethan picked up the pokeball and put it away then turned towards Karma.

"Thanks for intercepting the attack earlier, it was aimed at me. If it missed and hit my backpack with the egg in it, it would have been bad." Ethan said to Karma.

"No problem. What were you doing in this cave anyways?" Karma said.

"I was...following a lead. That's all I can disclose. What are you doing down here." Ethan replied.

"Hm...I was looking for a token." Karma said.

Ethan's eyes brightened for a second as he reached in his bag and took out an object and handed it to Karma, then said, "Would this be what you're looking for?"

Karma took it and observed it. It was an object that looked like a champion tower with the name Johto on it.

"Hmm...so this is what the token looks like." Karma whispered to himself.

He then looked up at Ethan and said, "Where'd you find this?"

"When I was looking for something down in the lake, wasn't sure what it was for but it looked out of place from everything else so I took it." Ethan said.

"Heh, well you saved me a lot of trouble then." Karma said.

Ethan just nodded and said, "Let me properly introduce myself. My name's Ethan Gold, yours?"

"Karma Akabane." Karma said as they shook hands.

Ethan then turned to leave as he said, "Pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I'll be off then."

He started walking towards the exit again when Karma said, "Can I ask you something."

Ethan paused in his tracks and said, "What is it?"

Karma then asked, "If you aren't Champion anymore, then who is?"

Ethan gave a small smile and said, "I haven't been Champion for about a year now. I gave that position up to Lyra."

At that moment, the other student who had been standing by watching everything transpire moved towards them and said, "Lyra? Who's that?"

Ethan gave a disapproving look to the student, he turned and started to walk off as he said, "Lyra Silver. She and I are engaged."

He then disappeared out of sight along with Typhlosion. The student had a surprised look on his face as Karma turned to look at him and said, "Who are you?"

"I'm Tyler." The student said.

"Hmm...Looks like you pissed him off. Good job." Karma said and turned to walk away leaving Tyler to contemplate what just happened.

 **888**

As the airship approached Tenjin Island Professor Yucca and Professor Azalea stood atop the roof observing Shadow Skarmory.

"So, what do you think?" Yucca asked Azalea.

"Hmm...I can't say for sure, but it appears your hunch may be somewhat correct. This Skarmory looks as if it was not just turned into a Shadow Pokemon, but had evolved into one. I'm not sure how this happened exactly, but it may have to do with the principles of limit break evolution."

Professor Yucca was deep in thought as the airship began its landing descent near Io labs. "We should notify Headmaster Adrastos immediately once we get inside." Yucca said.

Azalea nodded. Once the airship had fully landed, both Professor's jumped off while Deoxys brought Skarmory inside the giant lab building. As they walked inside many of the employees bowed and greeted Professor Yucca.

A young woman with blue-gray hair soon walked up to them and said, "Professor Yucca, welcome back. Serena and I already prepared a room for the examination."

Professor Yucca nodded his head with relief on his face and said, "Thanks Dawn, let's move Skarmory in there right away and begin running some tests."

Dawn nodded and showed Deoxys the way to bring Shadow Skarmory.

"Aren't you going to join them?" Professor Azalea asked Professor Yucca.

Yucca simply shook his head and said, "Maybe later. I trust their work. Dawn Platinum and Serena Y are the best assistants I could of asked for. They'll manage just fine without me, besides, there's something else I want to look into. Can you contact Headmaster Adrastos about this incident?"

Azalea gave him an inquisitive look before saying, "I can do that. I'm heading over to Atlas Tech, let me know if you need anything there, I can provide it."

Professor Yucca just nodded and then left through one of the many doors in the lab building. Azalea stared at the direction Yucca disappeared into for a good minute seeming to contemplate something before she turned around and walked out of the building.


	16. Chapter 15

Darkness blanketed the sky as Zayne lay under a tree, Metagross resting by his side. He had found the building they were supposed to go to a long time ago but decided he wanted to explore the island more. He turned and looked at Metagross whose eyes were closed resting peacefully. He smiled and then looked up at the stars. There were no city lights on this island to pollute the sky allowing the stars to shine brightly down on them.

He looked for various constellations and found Teddiursa and Ursaring up there. Constellations of Krabby, Braviary and Swanna, Pyroar and Tauros, even the constellation of Rayquaza. Zayne found moments like these to be peaceful. Not a care in the world. He was able to lose himself without any responsibilities or work or worry. He gave a few deep and calming breaths before he decided that he should return to reality. It was afterall the second day. They had arrived on the island around 2:30pm and it was currently 4:30am the second day. He took out his pen and checked the time limit. Only 10 hours left. The second exam will end today at 2:30pm.

"I guessed we put off reality long enough." He whispered to himself.

I wonder if they serve breakfast at the meeting spot he pondered. His stomach rumbled at the thought of food. During his time on the island he and Metagross have been eating berries to sustain themselves and the thought of having something other than berries seemed very appealing to him right now. He recalled that Professor Azalea told them they would have to procure their own food unless they made it to the building.

"I think i've explored enough, mind as well get placed in a house and check out what food they serve." Zayne said to himself.

He got up and tapped Metagross who woke up with a "Meta."

"Hey Metagross, lets head to the building now. I think you and I could use something to eat that isn't berries, what do you say?" Zayne said.

"Gross." Metagross said and nodded.

Zayne got on top of Metagross's head and said, "Alright, let's go."

Without wasting anymore time Metagross started for the building. From their current position Zayne estimated it'd take them about three hours before they reach the building.

 **888**

Killua was walking towards the building entertaining himself throwing his token into the air and re-catching it.

"Kalos huh…" Killua said to himself.

As he walked past a few bushes and giant boulders his Luxray who had been walking beside him stared forward and said, "Luxray."

Killua stopped and looked in Luxray's direction and said, "Hmm, you see something Luxray?"

Luxray nodded and signaled that it was up ahead. Killua narrowed his eyes and could make out a form. Human looking. Probably another student he thought. The figure continued to move until they walked into the moonlight that shown through the trees illuminating the dark forest. Killua continued to entertain himself with the token throwing it into the air and catching it while casually saying, "Yo. Need something?"

"I need a token." The student said.

"Ah. I see. Goodluck with that." Killua said as he continued to walk forward past the student.

"Ray." Luxray said.

Killua gave a nod towards Luxray as he understood what was said. As Killua walked past the student he attempted to grab the token that Killua was tossing in the air. At the same time the ground beneath Luxray and Killua began to collapse. Killua anticipating this thanks to Luxray's warning earlier was able to quickly make a jump to the side while grabbing his token. Luxray having excellent vision was able to easily avoid falling into the hole that was made beneath it.

"What!? But how?" The student said.

"What, you thought we'd fall for a trick like that." Killua scoffed.

"You'll have to do better than that, although you've lost the element of surprise." Killua said.

"Tch…Dugtrio." The student said.

"So, your second tact is to battle for it huh? I'm game." Killua said.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Kyle." Said the student.

"Why do you want my token? Killua asked nonchalantly.

"Eh. It's a pain to look for one. How about you just give me yours. You found one already and you look like you'd be good at finding another. I'll let you off easy. Just give me that token and we'll both be happy." Kyle said with a grin and confidence.

Killua observed Kyle noticing his pokeballs hanging by the right side of his belt. Ah what a pain of a person. Stealing is a valid way to obtain a token though as Killua recalled what the Professor said on the airship. Although it's probably frowned upon to do so. Oh well, then I won't feel bad for what I'm about to do to him Killua thought.

"If you want it you'll have to take it by force. But if you lose, you'll be disqualified." Killua said with an amused expression.

"Heh. I'm gonna squash you." Said Kyle.

"Let's get this over with." Killua said.

The strength of the moonlight slowly weakened as the night slowly started turning into day.

"Dugtrio, earth power!" Kyle ordered.

"Double team." Killua commanded.

As the ground beneath Luxray began to erupt Luxray soon became two, then four, then eight, and then sixteen all surrounding Dugtrio.

Damn. Which one is the real one Kyle thought.

"If we can't decide, we'll just hit them all. Earthquake!" Kyle said as he smiled at his genius idea.

Killua just smirked and said, "Roar."

As Dugtrio prepared to use Earthquake Luxray released a powerful roar that resounded throughout the forest. At that moment Kyle's eyes widened at the implications of the technique that Killua and Luxray just performed. Killua looked at Kyle's reaction and figured that Kyle must have realized what just happened.

Idiot. That's what he gets for trying to steal my stuff Killua thought.

The roar attack that Luxray unleashed forced Kyle's Dugtrio back into its pokeball as one of Kyle's other pokemon took its place. Not long after Dugtrio disappeared from the forest and back inside its ball, a Marowak stood in its place.

"Wh-What did you do! No! W-Wait...Maybe they won't find out." Kyle stuttered.

Not a second later and a loud noise came from Kyle's pen. He took it out only to find that instead of the time limit displayed, it had the word disqualified. Kyle's knees gave out as he collapsed to the ground.

"N-No...it can't be." He said. A voice could be heard from his pen that said, "Kyle Cross, you have been disqualified for using a pokemon other than that of the designated pokemon you assigned for exam 1 and exam 2. You will be escorted back safely to an airship that will take you home once the second exam is completed. Thank you for your participation." Kyle stood there unmoving.

 **888**

"Finally! We made it." Zayne said.

"Meta!" Metagross rejoiced.

Zayne hopped off of Metagross and landed on the ground with a thump. He checked the time again, "8am huh? That took a bit longer than I thought, but we did take our time." Zayne said.

The building was quite large and made of stone. It resembled a castle Zayne thought. He returned Metagross to its pokeball before entering the building. It was a big entrance hall with two grand staircases leading to the upper levels and doors to the far left and right that lead elsewhere. There was also a large desk in the front with someone waiting by it. She had red hair and glasses sitting on a recliner reading a book. The title read The flow of energy and pokemon physiology.

Zayne walked up to the desk and cleared his throat announcing his arrival.

She looked up from the book and said, "Hm…"

She closed the book and said, "Good to see that another one has made it. I'm Amaryllis Mars. You can call me Professor Mars. Please show me your token."

Zayne nodded and took out his token from inside his backpack. She took it from him and took out some fancy touchscreen device clicking some buttons.

"Alright. Zayne Aniketos. You are officially registered into House Kanto. On the desk you'll find an Atlas Dex. Please take one as it will help you locate everything you need on the Islands. It will also have details on the last exam. You'll also need to handover your pen."

Zayne handed over his pen and grabbed an Atlas Dex. It was white and blue and looked like a pokedex. Professor Mars had gone back to reading but noticed that Zayne hadn't moved yet.

She looked up from her book and said, "Is there something else I can help you with?"

"Yes." Zayne said.

At that moment his stomach gave a growl.

"I see." Professor Mars said noting his hunger. She pointed to her right, which was Zayne's left.

"Through that door is the kitchen. Breakfast is currently being served, feel free to help yourself." Professor Mars said.

Before she could return to her book the entrance doors opened and Killua walked in.

"Yo." Killua said.

"Oh. Killua. I thought you would have made it a while ago." Zayne said.

"I decided to explore the island a bit. What about you?" Killua replied.

"I had the same thought." Zayne said.

Killua nodded and stopped in front of Professor Mars. She introduced herself once again and went through the same process as she did with Zayne registering Killua in House Kalos.

"Ahh i'm starving." Killua said.

"I was just about to get some breakfast. Want to join me?" Zayne said.

"Oh! Good idea." Killua replied enthusiastically.

Zayne and Killua walked off to the kitchen. The food was served buffet style so Zayne and Killua grabbed some plates full of food and pokemon food and walked outside to grab a picnic table. The weather was nice out and it'd be less crowded for their pokemon to be clumped together inside than outside Zayne and Killua thought. Zayne and Killua took a seat noticing that most people opted to sit inside than outside.

"So, I'm curious what pokemon you have." Killua said.

"That makes two of us." Zayne replied.

Zayne set down six plates of pokemon food and said, "Come on out Metagross, Tyranitar, Lapras, Torterra, Garchomp, Arcanine!" Six beams of light appeared in front of the pokemon food plates and revealed Zayne's pokemon who all shouted with joy. Zayne went and greeted them all telling them to dig in.

"Oh!" Killua said with an impressed look in his eyes.

They all look really well trained Killua thought. He then set his own six plates of pokemon food down and said, "Come on out Zeraora, Luxray, Crobat, Drapion, Marshadow, Elektross!"

Killua's pokemon rejoiced at finally being able to come out of their pokeballs and getting food. Killua greeted his own pokemon before Zayne and Killua sat down to eat themselves.

"You've got an impressive team there." Zayne said to Killua while taking in a spoonful of food.

Killua glanced up and said, "Thanks! I take pride in my team. I can tell that your team is very well trained too. What house did you get placed in?" Killua took his own spoonful of food.

"House Kanto. I was attacked by a group of Shiftry and Nuzleaf who happened to have a token." Zayne replied.

Killua nodded and listened to Zayne as they both exchanged stories about what they experienced on the island. They continued to talk and eat for a while until they noticed that it was getting warmer outside.

Killua checked the time and said, "Holy...It's almost noon. We've been out here forever."

Zayne had a surprised expression on his face and said, "Wow, I didn't notice we were out here so long. Time really flew by."

He turned as he looked at their pokemon who were all sleeping peacefully. Zayne gave a small smile and said, "Return."

His pokemon returned to their pokeballs as Zayne picked up the empty plates that had pokemon food on them. Killua did the same and they walked inside to put the plates away.

"We should probably see what the last exam is all about." Zayne said.

Killua nodded and took out the Atlas Dex which had information on the last exam and read aloud, "Let's see. It says that it will be a one-on-one battle with an examiner. You will receive merit points based on your performance. The battle time limit is 5 minutes. If your pokemon is knocked out before the time limit you will be disqualified. If you knock out the examiner's pokemon before the time limit then you pass and will gain 1000 merit points. If the time limit reaches zero and neither pokemon is knocked out then you will pass and receive 500 merit points. Merit points determine your individual rank amongst all students in Atlas Academy. If you pass the last examination, you will automatically receive 1000 House points for your designated House. These points determine your House rank." Killua put the Atlas Dex away. "Well, it shouldn't be a problem for us." Killua said as he stretched a bit. Zayne nodded in agreement as they both started walking out of the kitchen only to run into Leo, Melanie, Invel, and Karma.

Leo gave a stunned expression which morphed into an excited one and said, "Guys!"


	17. Chapter 16

Leo walked up to Zayne and Killua and started talking incredibly fast. Too fast for Killua and Zayne to understand what he was saying so they both just nodded and said hesitantly, "Cool. That sounds really awesome."

Melanie hit Leo on the head and said, "Idiot. Like they can understand what you're saying."

She then turned to Zayne and Killua and said, "Sorry, just ignore him. He's just excited that you guys made it since it's the last day of the exam and we thought you guys would of beaten us first. When we couldn't find you guys here Leo's imagination began running a little wild. He wanted to go back out on the island to look for you guys but we weren't allowed to leave the building."

Invel nodded and said, "I assume you guys already ate but do you want to join us? If not for the food then to keep us company."

Karma walked past them into the kitchen and said, "I'm going in first. And don't loiter by the door, you're blocking the way."

The group turned to look at the doorway where students had been waiting with an annoyed expression on their face.

"Oops...Sorry." Leo said and apologized.

The group walked into the kitchen as Zayne and Killua joined them.

"Zayne, you won't believe this! Invel, Melanie and I found the only three wild card tokens!"

Zayne and Killua gave a small surprised expression. Killua then said, "Huh…"

He didn't expect them of all people to find the wild card tokens since he assumed they would be difficult to find, although that was just his assumption.

Zayne then said, "That's...impressive actually. So what house did each of you choose to join?"

"Hehe, the three of us are joining House Hoenn together!" Leo said with excitement.

"What House are you guys in?" Karma asked.

"I'm in House Kanto." Zayne replied.

"House Kalos." Killua said.

"Ehhh, I see. I'm in House Johto. Guess who I met on the island?" Karma said.

The rest of the group had a curious expression on their face wondering who Karma could of met other than the students on the island.

"Who?" Melanie asked.

"The former Champion of Johto, Ethan Gold."

"EEEEHHHHH!" Leo, Melanie, and Invel said in unison.

Zayne and Killua stared at Karma with a look of confusion. "Ethan Gold? You sure it was him?" Killua said.

"Hmmm...why would he be on the island? And former? Then who's currently champion?" Zayne pondered out loud.

"Oi oi. I know who I saw. We talked and he actually was the one who gave me the token after I saved him from a weird looking pokemon. And he said he passed down the title to his girlfriend Lyra Silver." Karma said.

At the mention of weird looking pokemon Zayne and Killua's ears perked up disregarding the information about who was currently champion. Killua remembered what Zayne said earlier about seeing a strange looking Skarmory and Zayne remembered what Killua said the strange looking Skarmory could have been. Killua had some knowledge on shadow pokemon which he told Zayne about after Zayne had described what the Skarmory had looked like and acted like.

"What do you mean by strange looking pokemon?" Zayne inquired.

"Hmm...Well it was a Crobat only its body was completely silver. It was weird. Ethan defeated it and then captured it."

"Silver?" Invel said in disbelief.

"What? It must of been the lighting that made it look like that." Leo said.

Karma gave Leo a deadly look asking him to question his judgement one more time.

Leo shrinked back in his seat and said, "Or it really was silver."

This left Zayne and Killua confused again.

"Do you know anything about this Killua?" Zayne asked.

Killua shook his head and said, "No. I thought what Karma saw could have been related to the Shadow Skarmory you saw but I've never heard of a silver pokemon."

At the mention of Shadow Skarmory the others ears perked up and they said in unison, "What's this about a Shadow Skarmory?"

And so Zayne told them about his encounter with the shadow pokemon. He then showed them the object he picked up that fell off from the Skarmory.

"I don't know what this symbol is but it must be related to how Shadow Skarmory appeared." Zayne said.

Killua nodded and said, "We'll have to do more research. All shadow pokemon were supposed to have been purified and the project to turn pokemon into shadow pokemon was halted by the pokemon rangers in Almia."

Zayne and the others nodded in agreement. Not long after an announcement was made throughout the building that sounded like Professor Mars's voice telling all students to meet outside in front of the building. Zayne checked the time which read 2:30pm.

"Guess time's up." He said.

Karma, Leo, Melanie, and Invel finished eating and put their plates away before they all headed outside. Once everyone gathered Professor Mars started to address the crowd.

"Now then, 3 of your fellow classmates did not make it past the second exam so that leaves only 70 of you left. Congratulations. You have the next 10 minutes to pack up your things before we leave for Nike Island where your final exam will begin. Invel Alseif, Leo Stormholt, and Melanie Starling, please step forward." Professor Mars said.

They did as she asked and walked to the front of the crowd.

"The three of you found the wild card tokens so you do not need to partake in the last exam. You will automatically be awarded 1000 merit and house points. You will still accompany us to the island until the exam is finished." Professor Mars addressed to the three of them.

They simply nodded and said, "Yes ma'am."

Professor Mars nodded and then said, "Alright, meet back here in 10. Dismissed."

Most of the students returned inside to prepare their things for departure while those who didn't have anything extra to prepare remained outside. Not long after an airship descended from the sky and landed in front of the building.

"Huh. It's a different airship than the one before." Killua noted.

Once all the students returned they all boarded the airship and started heading towards Nike Island.

Professor Mars began to address them once more. "Now, before we reach the island let me tell you a little bit about it. Nike Island has its own inhabitants. Roughly 350,000 people live on Nike Island. It is also the island where Atlas Academy holds and hosts any major events and competitions in Valhalla Stadium. Valhalla Stadium is where you will be taking your final exam. You will find that Nike Island is much different than most islands due to it having a populace. Once you complete the final exam you will have the opportunity to travel to the different islands here and you will also find that you will spend a considerable amount of time in Nike Island. Aside from Valhalla stadium and the City of Nike there are many shopping centers, restaurants, and beaches there. The Grand Coordinator's Stage is there as well. Nike Harbor, a famous place where you can find trading from all over the world occurs there also.

Since we're on the subject I suppose I should tell you a bit about the other islands as well. Aeaea Island, where we just left is more wild. Forests and rocky terrain encompass the island. Beaches surround the coast. It is a place where you will find many wild pokemon and it is also a place where you may train while attending Atlas. Aside from Nike Island and Aeaea Island you've already been to Argos Island.

The largest of the seven islands. Argos Island is where the main Academy is. It is also where your Houses are located and the location of the seven champion towers. There are many forests, mountains, and lakes on Argos. You will also find the Battle Domes there which you will learn about later.

Next there is Tenjin Island. This is the island where the main research labs and tech companies are located. Professor Yucca is the head of Io research labs there and Professor Azalea is one of the top scientists working in Atlas Tech Incorporations. The Atlas Academy Museum is also located on Tenjin Island.

New Terra Island is more of a flat land with less forests and mountains than other areas and is a favorite place for Houses to host and play House games and battles there. You will learn more about those once you get accommodated in your House. There are also many pokemon ranches there and aside from Nike Island, New Terra Island also has a populace of about 250,000 and you can find the City of Terra there.

The 6th island is called Suijin Island. It is located deep underwater and can only be found by following the Okeanus Trench. This trench will lead you to the Okeanus Cave. If you enter the cave you will find yourself in Suijin Island. You will find that there are many water pokemon around and the island is essentially a titanic hollow cave underwater.

Lastly, there is Mount Ouranos Island named for the grand mountain Ouranos that is situated on the north end of the island. It is 20,000 ft. in elevation. On the south end of Ouranos Island is the grand volcano Vulcan. This place also hosts many wild pokemon and is an excellent place to do training. That concludes my summary of The Argos Islands. Now get ready, we're approaching Nike Island."

Everyone had listened intently and after the explanation of the islands, it only made people more excited about being here. Everyone turned to look out a window to see Nike Island. It was beautiful from the sky Zayne thought to himself. He saw a large stadium that had the word Valhalla inscribed on the side. It was a colossal stadium that dwarfed many of the buildings surrounding it. The aircraft flew over the open roof of the stadium and began to descend.

"This is it guys. The last exam. Good luck Zayne, Killua, Karma! We'll be waiting for you guys!" Leo said. Invel and Melanie nodded as the aircraft touched ground.

"Alright, everyone out." Professor Mars said.


	18. Chapter 17

The door to the airship opened and the 70 students who made it this far began to follow Professor Mars out into the large stadium. Professor Mars turned and began to address the students once again, "As you can see the stadium has been divided into 5 different sections. 14 of you will line up behind each of the 5 different sections. Since each battle will only have a time limit of 5 minutes the last exam won't last for more than a little over an hour. Once I assign you to your section go there immediately and you can begin the final test."

Professor Mars began to assign each person their section in the same way that Professor Yucca assigned each person their room in the first exam. By simply choosing the people closest to them until the maximum amount of people were picked.

"And finally, Zayne, Killua, and Karma, you go join the other 11 students in section 5." Professor Mars said pointing to them.

"Ok." Killua said.

"Hmmm." Karma replied.

Zayne just nodded as the three of them walked off to section 5 with the rest of the students assigned to that group.

"Looks like we're last in line." Karma said.

"Teh. I wanted to go first." Killua said disappointedly.

"Well, let's just see how everyone else is doing." Zayne said.

There were about 10 examiners per each section that rotated during the battle. They used pokemon provided to them from the Academy Zayne observed.

"Ehhh, not one of the students have lost yet." Karma said a little surprised.

"You really don't have much faith in any of the others abilities don't you?" Zayne said to Karma.

"Nope. Not really." Karma said bluntly.

"No one lost yet, but only 1 person from our section actually won. The rest ran out of time and tied." Killua said.

"Oh, looks like you're up Karma." Zayne said.

"Finally." He replied.

Karma walked over to the battle stage and got in position. The examiner then said, "This will be a one on one pokemon battle. The time limit is 5 minutes. Did you read the rules before hand?"

"Of course." Karma replied.

"Good. Then let's get started. Go Blastoise!" The examiner said.

A beam of light filled the battlefield revealing a powerful looking Blastoise. Karma had an amused expression on his face and said, "Zoroark, stand."

He threw a dusk ball in the air and the light released from inside the ball onto the battlefield revealing a powerful looking Zoroark.

"Oh! A Zoroark. It looks pretty strong." Killua commented.

Zayne nodded in agreement. Five minutes on a large clock appeared and a sound went off signaling the beginning of the battle.

"Blastoise, ice beam!" The examiner said.

"Night Daze." Karma commanded.

Before Blastoise could launch its ice beam a dark shock wave knocked Blastoise off balance causing it to miss with its attack.

"Blas…" Blastoise said holding its head.

"Oh, that seemed to of had some effect." Killua said.

"It must have been dazed by Zoroark's attack reducing it's accuracy." Zayne commented.

"Blastoise, hang on, use whirlpool!" The examiner said.

"Zoroark." Karma said.

Zoroark nodded and stared at Blastoise. Blastoise paused in hesitation not able to form a whirlpool attack.

"Blastoise, what's wrong?" The examiner asked.

"B-Blas...Blastoise." Blastoise stuttered as it continued staring off into space.

"It must be Zoroark's ability illusion. It's making Blastoise see something that's hindering it from following through with its attack." Zayne said.

Killua nodded in agreement.

"Zoroark, copycat." Karma said.

"Zor." Zoroark responded and charged an ice beam attack copying Blastoise's last move. Ice beam landed a direct hit on Blastoise completely encasing it in ice.

"No! Blastoise." The examiner said.

"Lets finish this up Zoroark, focus blast." Karma said.

"Zo-ro-ark!" Zoroark charged a powerful aura in its hands before unleashing a fully powered focus blast at the frozen Blastoise shattering the ice and knocking Blastoise into a wall.

"No!" The examiner said.

The smoke cleared and showed Blastoise knocked out against the wall. The time limit read 3 minutes and 10 seconds left.

"Blastoise, return." The examiner said.

The examiner then proceeded to shake Karma's hand and showed him that his points had been uploaded into the Atlas Academy system. Karma walked back to Killua and Zayne after he returned Zoroark.

"Not bad." Killua said.

Karma looked up and said, "Oh, you sound like you can do better."

Killua simply smirked and said, "Watch me."

He then walked over to the battlefield for his turn.

Zayne simply said, "You've got a strong partner."

Karma replied, "He's my strongest pokemon. I decided to take my time. If I wanted to I could have won a lot faster."

Zayne just shook his head amused and said, "Right."

The examiner rotated to a different person and said, "Electivire I choose you!"

Killua responded by saying, "Zeraora, let's crush them."

Killua threw a fast ball into the air and Zeraora appeared soon after. Small electric currents could be seen flowing around its body. Five minutes on the clock appeared and a sound went off signaling the start of the battle.

"Electivire use hammer arm!" The examiner said.

"Drain Punch." Killua commanded.

"Zer!" Zeraora said and jumped into close combat with Electivire. Zeraora skillfully dodged left and right and ducked and jumped all around Electivire causing it to become frustrated. Electivire tried to land a successful hit but Zeraora continued to expertly evade and began its counter attack. Zeraora dodged left and threw a drain punch landing a hit on Electivire's right leg causing it to fall on its knees. Zeraora threw another drain punch right in Electivire's face causing it to fall backwards. Before Electivire could fully fall back Zeraora threw one last and powerful drain punch right in Electivire's stomach forcing it to fly across the battlefield and into the same wall that Zoroark caused Blastoise to fly into making the hole even bigger than it was before. Electivire was knocked unconscious with the time limit reading 3 minutes and 32 seconds. The examiner congratulated Killua.

"Tsk...show off." Karma said.

Zayne gave an amused expression before congratulating Killua on his victory.

"Eh, it was nothing." Killua responded.

"Is Zeraora your strongest pokemon Killua?" Zayne asked curiously.

Killua nodded and said, "Yeah he is."

"Hm...since Karma and you both used your strongest pokemon, I'll do the same." Zayne said.

"Ohh, can't wait to see how you battle." Killua said.

Karma looked with interest. Once the examiner changed he and Zayne readied themselves on the battlefield.

"Rhyperior prepare for battle!" The examiner said.

"Rhyperior!" Rhyperior shouted as it entered the battlefield.

"Metagross, in position." Zayne said.

"Meta." Metagross responded.

"Oh! A shiny Metagross." Karma commented.

"Hm, I had a feeling that was his most powerful pokemon." Killua said as he recalled all of Zayne's pokemon when they had breakfast at the second exam site's building.

"Rhyperior, drill run!" The examiner ordered.

"Metagross, flash cannon." Commanded Zayne.

As Rhyperior began charging towards Metagross, Metagross released a silver and white light directed right in front of Rhyperior's feet cavitating the ground and causing Rhyperior to trip. Rhyperior fell forward flat on its stomach.

"No Rhyperior! Tsk...Rhyperior, use giga impact!" The examiner shouted.

"Meteor Mash." Zayne commanded.

As Rhyperior began to stand up from its fallen state to prepare giga impact Metagross flew at Rhyperior, blue light encircling it as Metagross spun with its fists out in front and crashed into Rhyperior with an incredible force. The speed and force in which Metagross crashed into Rhyperior caused Rhyperior to fly through the air with Metagross as Metagross drove Rhyperior into the same exact spot on the wall where Blastoise and Electivire had fell victim to. Not long after Rhyperior made impact with the wall it fell unconscious. The time limit reading 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

"Ohhh! Not bad." Killua said.

"Tch. If I didn't take my time I could have beaten both of your scores." Karma said.

"Heh. I'd like to see you try. Oh wait, you missed your chance." Killua laughed and teased.

Karma had a frustrated and annoyed expression on his face.

"Oh. How about I just beat you in a battle right here." Karma challenged.

"Eh, think you can pull it off?" Killua challenged back.

"I don't think it. I know it." Karma said.

They continued to banter as Zayne walked back to them guessing what probably transpired.

 _Ahem._ Coughed Zayne.

Killua and Karma turned their attention to him.

"You know, we never did make a bet so it doesn't really matter who had the best time. Besides, if that were the case, I wouldn't of held back and I would of had the best time." Zayne said teasing Killua and Karma.

"Hmm, so you think you can do better huh?" Killua said.

"Well then, guess we'll just have to have a three way battle to see who's really the strongest." Karma said.

"Oh, you guys are on." Zayne said.

What seemed to be sparks of electric currents collided against each other as the three of them locked eyes. They were brought out of their competitive bubble when an announcement over the stadium could be heard.

"Hello everyone. The final exam is finished. Congratulations to all 70 students. You all have passed. No one failed the final part. Please re-board the airship you came from where you will be taken to Argos Island to finalize your registration into the Academy."

"That sounded like the headmaster." Karma said.

Killua nodded in agreement and said, "He's probably watching from some VIP seat in the stadium somewhere."

Zayne nodded and said, "Let's go. Hopefully finalizing our registration won't take long. I'd like to take a shower."

Karma and Killua nodded in agreement as they walked back towards the airship.


	19. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: Once again, if you have forgotten when you see parenthesis (...) it means a flashback or a character is recalling a memory. Thanks for reading! Back to the story.**

* * *

The airship had finally landed on Argos Island after the final exam and all the students were directed into the Academy entrance where seven large tables were set up each with a sign of the different Houses and a person sitting at each of the table. All the students were walking towards the table with the House name that they were assigned to so Zayne walked towards the Kanto table and stood in line. As he was getting closer he noticed that the person sitting at the Kanto table was a male student with red hair and golden colored eyes. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and he wore a black tie. He also had some sort of badge on the top left of his shirt designating that he was from the Kanto House. On the top right side of his shirt was a name tag that said Ren. It wasn't long after until Zayne was next in line.

As he walked up the red haired student introduced himself and said, "Hello, I'm Ren Cowan. I'm from the Kanto House and I'll be helping you finalize your registration."

He stuck out his hand which Zayne grabbed and shook as he introduced himself saying, "Hi. I'm Zayne Aniketos, thanks for having me."

Ren nodded and typed a few things into the computer in front of him.

"Hmm...impressive scores." Ren whispered to himself.

Zayne happened to overhear though. After Ren clicked a few more buttons he said, "Alright. All registered Zayne. You can take the packet to your right. It has a ton of information that you might find useful to help you acclimate to the Academy. You're in House 3 and your room number is 901. Here's your badge." Ren handed over a badge identical to the one he was wearing over to Zayne and also a piece of parchment with his House number and room number on it.

"There's no dress code but you do have to wear your badge while on campus grounds at all times. Do you have a pokedex and an Atlas Dex?" Ren said.

"I have something similar to a pokedex." Zayne replied.

"Can I see it?" Ren asked.

Zayne nodded and handed them over.

"Oh, now this is rare." Ren said as he observed the device Zayne handed over to him.

"This is a master dex, incredibly rare and expensive. If you'd like, I can upload all the data from the Atlas dex they gave you into your master dex. That way you don't have to carry around so many items with you." Ren said to Zayne.

Zayne nodded and said, "Thanks, I'd appreciate that."

Ren nodded and got to work. A few moments later and he handed Zayne back his master dex.

"Do you want your Atlas dex back? If not i'm gonna throw it away." Ren said.

"No thanks, I don't have a need for it." Zayne replied.

"Got it." Ren said and tossed it in the trash beside him. "I look forward to seeing you around Zayne." Ren said.

Zayne nodded and said, "Likewise."

He then left the building outside and saw that Leo, Invel, Melanie, Killua, and Karma were already outside.

He walked over to them and said, "You guys got done pretty quickly." Killua nodded acknowledging Zayne's presence and said, "Yeah. It's been a long day and I'd like a shower so I think i'm gonna turn in for the day and check out my room."

Karma nodded in agreement.

"Wait! Let's all exchange numbers so we can meet up and hang out sometime!" Leo said.

Melanie and Invel nodded in agreement and gave Zayne, Killua and Karma their numbers and vice versa.

"Maybe we'll see each other in class." Zayne said.

"I hope so!" Melanie replied.

"Well, I'm off. See you guys later." Killua said as he walked towards the direction of the Kalos House.

"Same." Karma said waving behind him as he walked off towards the Johto House.

"Guess I'm off too." Zayne said as he walked off towards the Kanto House while the last trio walked together off towards the Hoenn House. As Zayne approached the Kanto House he noticed that it was several large buildings all connected by a skyway.

"Impressive architecture." He muttered to himself.

Zayne looked at the large champion tower that stood near the Kanto Houses. That has to be at least 3 times as tall as the House buildings he thought to himself. He noticed that a few of the other new students arrived already and were looking to see which building their room is in. Zayne looked down at his piece of parchment paper that said House 3 room 901. He started walking towards the third building but stopped when he noticed that one of the new students was hitting on a female student. He quickly glanced in the direction of the commotion and then stared back towards the building ignoring the situation when he stopped for a moment and glanced back as if something caught his eye.

The female student. She had black hair that flowed down just above her waist. She had a red long sleeve shirt on. It had 3 buttons near the neck with the top two undone. She also wore a black mini skirt and black leggings with long brown leather boots. She looked to be about 5' 6" with a slender build and her eyes were an emerald color. She carried a decently sized purse over her right shoulder.

She's… Zayne couldn't finish his thought. He felt warm and could feel his heart speed up just a bit. He started to walk towards their direction which allowed him to hear what was being said.

"Come on babe, one date. My treat." The male student said.

"Sorry. Not interested. If you'll excuse me I have some work I need to finish." The female student said and attempted to walk past the male student but stopped when he sidestepped to block her way. She looked annoyed but surprisingly calm.

"Huh? Sorry but I don't take no for an answer." He said.

The crowd around them was growing larger. She walked around him once more but this time he grabbed her arm. She was about to say something when Zayne said with a rather dark and commanding tone, "Let her go." Zayne walked past the crowd towards them.

"Huh? Who are you?" The male student said unconsciously letting go of her arm.

Before Zayne could say anything else the female student sighed and said with a commanding tone, "Alright that's enough."

Everyone's eyes were now focused on her. The female student focused her attention at the male student and said, "Clearly you don't know who I am, not that it matters. I tried to be polite turning you down but you overstepped your boundaries grabbing my arm like that. I told you I was busy and had things to do. Now I'm late for a meeting. Tell you what. Let's make an official bet. You and I have a one on one pokemon battle. If you win then I'll go on a date with you. If I win then you can't speak to me for the rest of the year. Deal?"

The male student simply smiled and said, "Heh, you have yourself a deal."

She looked at him calmly and said, "Alright, we'll use battle dome 1. Follow me."

The student looked a bit confused but followed as did the large crowd surrounding them. Zayne out of curiosity was about to follow suit when the female student paused briefly as she was walking past him and said, "Thanks for saying something earlier. I guess that means you don't know who I am either."

Zayne's pulse quickened being so close to her. He couldn't think of something to say so he simply said, "No problem." She gave him a quick amused smile before walking off to where Zayne assumed was the direction of battle dome 1. Zayne stood there for a few more moments before turning and following everyone towards the battle dome.

As the female student was walking towards the battle dome she was silently thinking to herself. Hmm...he seems kind of interesting. As she recalled Zayne's image in her mind. No one's stood up for me like that publicly in a long time. Everyone reached the battle dome not long after. It was a huge dome that had a retractable roof. The female student walked inside and stood in front of a door labeled door 1.

She turned towards the male student who hit on her earlier ignoring the crowd and said, "This is the battle dome. This is where you can battle other students on campus and increase your rank. In an official battle dome match you must bet an equal amount of points whether it is house points you are betting or individual points. However, it is also possible to bet something other than points. You are allowed to bet things that are considered to be equal in the concerning parties perspective. In this case, me going on a date with you vs. you not speaking to me for a whole year. I find that to be a fair bet. Do you?"

The male student said, "If it's a whole year of me not speaking to you, then if I win you will officially become my girlfriend." The male student then smiled at his reformed bet.

She simply sighed and said, "Fine."

She typed out a few things on a monitor nearby and said, "What's your name?"

The male student said, "Tyler Harken."

"Alright Tyler, I'm Rin Ravenwood." She said.

Zayne's ears perked up at her introduction. Zayne silently thought to himself as he tried to remember where he saw that name. Then a light bulb clicked in his head as he recalled where he saw it.

(As they continued to follow Professor Yucca to the right stairwell he briefly read what was displayed on one of the sides of the 1st obelisk which had the name Kanto at the top. He was able to make out what the words at the top were which was House Rankings, and below it displayed the number 1 with the name Rin Ravenwood next to it).

That's right Zayne thought to himself. When we first entered the academy to take the first exam there were obelisks at the entrance. So this is the Kanto House's number one pokemon trainer, Rin Ravenwood. I doubt this guy Tyler knows that.

Not long after Rin said to Tyler, "Alright. I'll be in room number 1. Which room will you choose?"

Tyler looked right and left before saying, "I'll choose room 2."

"Okay. We will both go into our chosen rooms. I will challenge room number 2 which is the room you are in and you just have to accept it. This time we aren't betting points, instead we are betting what we agreed upon. You'll see that appear on the screen before you accept. Lets go." Rin said.

She walked into her room as Tyler did the same. Not long after Tyler saw that the room had a bed, couch, TV, Table, another door that said to the battlefield, and a computer panel which was ringing. He walked over to the panel and saw a challenge offer.

It said _Rin Ravenwood would like to challenge you to an official match._

 _The stakes: If Rin Ravenwood wins, you will not speak to her for a whole year. If Tyler Harken wins then Rin Ravenwood will become his girlfriend._

 _It will be a one on one pokemon battle. The winner will be decided when one pokemon is unable to battle or one side admits defeat._

 _The stage will be an open ground stage._

 _Accept. Decline._

Tyler pressed the accept button and the door that said to the battlefield on it opened revealing a small cart on top of some tracks. Tyler got in and it shuttled him to a battlefield stage. He saw that Rin was already at the other end of the battlefield meanwhile the crowd that followed them to the dome were sitting outside in the large lounge area watching everything on the large flat screen tv.

Rin looked at Tyler and said, "This is your last chance to back out. Official bets made at the battle dome are recorded and upheld by the Academy. Failure to uphold your end of the bet will mean your immediate expulsion."

Tyler just smirked and said, "It won't matter, after this you'll be my girlfriend."

Rin narrowed her eyes in annoyance before recomposing herself as a machine voice spoke over the battlefield and said, "Let the match begin."


	20. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: I do not own pokemon nor any characters from pokemon.**

* * *

Currently battle dome 1 was filled only with students from the Kanto House. There was a lot of chatter going on when he noticed Ren Cowan there. The person who finalized all the new student's registration, granted there were only 9 new students since there were originally 70 who passed through the final phases of the exam so it probably didn't take long to get through all 9. Ren turned his head and spotted Zayne.

He walked over and said, "Hey there. How'd a new student get into a battle with Rin already?"

Zayne said, "That guy was hitting on her. She rejected him but he wouldn't take no for an answer so they made an official bet."

Ren listened intently and then rubbed the bottom of his chin. "Oh, so that's it huh? Well looks like he's gonna learn the hard way that he doesn't get whatever he wants whenever he wants." Ren said.

Zayne nodded in agreement. Zayne then said, "So...who is Rin Ravenwood?" Hoping he could learn a little more about her.

Ren's ears perked up at the question. He then said, "Rin Ravenwood. She's a second year. She took the title of the student Kanto Champion during the second semester of her first year here. Being champion of the House grants her the automatic number 1 spot in the House rankings. She also happens to be ranked 3rd overall amongst all the students here at the Academy. She's wicked strong. She sort of kept to herself when she first arrived at the academy and she is one of the most beautiful girls on campus according to the rumors that go around. She inherited Ravenwood industries at a young age from her deceased father so that's probably why she isn't seen interacting much with other students since she's busy dealing with that. All of those things made it hard to approach her and over time people just felt like they lost their chance to introduce themselves so everyone just kind of admires her from afar and don't really interact with her."

Zayne listened intently and pondered a bit. Then he said, "That...sounds lonely…" Zayne whispered.

Ren had a look of surprise at Zayne's response but recomposed himself as the battle was about to begin. Ren then said, "Well, I've seen Rin battle enough times to know this kid won't stand a chance. By the way, I'm 2nd in house rankings." He gave Zayne a proud smile.

Zayne then said, "Then one day you can expect a challenge from me." Zayne smiled back and returned his attention to the screen. He then asked, "If Rin is 3rd overall, who's ranked 1st and 2nd?"

Ren thought for a moment before saying, "Tobias is ranked 1st, he's the student Champion of the Sinnoh House, and Natural Harmonia Gropius, everyone calls him N for short, he's the student Champion of the Unova House, he's ranked 2nd."

"Hmmm…" Zayne said with an expression of curiosity. Some chatter from the students around them could be heard. "Finally, it's about to start." A student said.

"Alright, I choose you Hydreigon!" Tyler said as Hydreigon appeared on the field with a ferocious roar.

"Articuno, center stage." Rin said as she threw a pokeball in the air that was black in color and had the symbols of the 18 pokemon types on it. Articuno appeared on the battlefield as blue sparkles fell down majestically as it flapped its wings.

"A-Articuno?" Tyler stuttered shocked at the pokemon before him. He then recalled the pokemon at the top of the Kanto Champion tower next to the Houses.

"Wait...are you the student Champion of Kanto?" Tyler asked dumbfoundedly.

Rin had a neutral expression and said, "I am. You may have the first move."

Tyler gritted his teeth. Shit. Why did she have to be the champion. She's probably pretty strong then. But if I win, that means the champion becomes my girlfriend and wait, doesn't that technically make me the new champion. Tyler internally was thinking to himself when he heard Rin say, "Look. We don't have all day. If you aren't going to make the first move then I will."

Tyler shook his head of any thoughts he had unrelated to the battle and said, "Heh. I got this. Hydreigon use flamethrower!"

Hydreigon roared and launched a flamethrower directly at Articuno who didn't move from its position in the air. Flamethrower hit Articuno in the chest and a plume of smoke clouded the area around it. Tyler smirked to himself. Heh, guess she isn't as good as I thought. Taking her champion title and making her my girlfriend is gonna be a piece of cake he thought. Once the smoke cleared Articuno was in the same position unfazed by the attack.

"What? No way! That should have been super effective!" Tyler exclaimed.

Rin then said, "Blizzard." Articuno narrowed its eyes disapprovingly at Tyler and Hydreigon then released a powerful storm of snow and ice in a matter of seconds completely filling up the entire battlefield leaving Hydreigon nowhere to escape to for safety. In mere moments of the blizzard coming into contact with Hydreigon, Hydreigon became unconscious frozen in a ice-like crystal.

A machine voice could be heard over the intercom and said, "Victory goes to Rin Ravenwood."

"N-No! It can't be...I lost…" Tyler said with a weakening voice.

Everyone outside the lounge area began talking amongst themselves amazed at the strength of their House's student Champion.

Rin had already recalled Articuno and said to Tyler, "Don't forget you need to uphold your end of the deal. If you speak to me even once the entire year you'll be expelled starting now. Look, I don't hate you, but I don't approve of the personality you've shown me so far. I'm telling you this now so you remember and don't get expelled. Don't reply or you'll be expelled. Regardless of how you acted towards me and regardless of the bet I still have a responsibility as the Kanto House's student Champion to ensure that everyone has a fair chance at this academy to improve themselves as a trainer, and hopefully as a person. That's all."

She then left the room leaving behind Tyler who stood there silently unable to respond to her else he risk being expelled. All he could do was soak in what she said and listen which was a different feeling for him. He was so used to always having something to say back but now he couldn't. Even if he wanted to.

This will be good for him. He seemed like he was the type who always had something to say back and never stopped to just listen to others. Maybe this will give him a chance to learn how to just listen and think about things before saying them. Although this only applies when I speak to him. Rin thought to herself as she exited the room and started heading out the battle dome.

She paused and turned to look at Zayne before she exited the battle dome.

Ren who happened to see the exchange suddenly said, "Ehhhh…" He then nudged Zayne.

"Hey, what was that for?" Zayne said.

"Dude, Rin just stopped and looked at you just now. Why? That was a little out of character for her. Did you guys actually meet already?" Ren inquired.

Zayne just shrugged and said, "Only briefly, I tried to get that guy Tyler off her case but as you can see she was more than capable of handling herself."

Ren had a curious expression on his face which he was brought out of when he noticed Zayne starting to walk away.

"Hey wait up!" Ren said as he fast walked towards Zayne. "I can show you to your room if you'd like?" Ren said.

"I think I can manage." Zayne said. He thought about it a bit and then said, "But if it's not too much of a bother, then I guess some company on the way wouldn't hurt."

Ren nodded and took the lead whilst Zayne silently followed beside him.


	21. Chapter 20

**Author's note: Paranthesis (...) mean character is remembering something or it is a flashback. And if you see 888 that means scene change. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Zayne and Ren walked back to the Kanto Houses where Ren showed Zayne his room. They took an elevator up to the 9th floor and walked over to room 1 where Zayne was assigned to stay. Zayne noticed that there was only 15 rooms to each floor. The 9th floor was the highest floor.

"Alright we're here. If you open your packet you'll find your room key." Ren said.

Zayne opened up his packet and sure enough there was his room key. He held it up to the scanner and a few moments later it made a clicking noise signaling the door was unlocked. Zayne opened up the door and walked inside and to his surprise, the room was huge contrary to what he was expecting. It was practically a luxury suite. The living area was open so that you could see to the kitchen while the bedroom was around the corner of the living area.

"So, what do you think?" Ren said with a grin.

"It's...definitely more than what I expected." Zayne said.

"Heh. Only the best for our students. Well I'll let you get settled in. Here." Ren said handing a piece of paper to Zayne. "That's my number. Save it. Call me if you need anything. Classes start in two days so I suggest you take a look through that packet and familiarize yourself with your schedule along with knowing how to get to your classes in the Academy building. I don't know what your financial situation looks like but in case no one told you, at the start of each month all students receive an allowance of 5000 pokedollars. I'd be glad to tell you more about how the Academy works and all tomorrow if you'd like?" Ren said.

"That'd be helpful thanks. I appreciate it." Zayne said truthfully.

Ren nodded and said, "No problem, how about we meet for lunch tomorrow and I can go over some important details. Let's meet on the 1st floor lounge area at 11am tomorrow."

Zayne nodded in agreement and said, "Alright, let's do that."

Ren and Zayne exchanged goodbyes before Ren left the room. Zayne took in a deep breath and let it out. It's been a long day he thought. He explored his new living quarters a little and found the washer and dryer room next to the bathroom. He stripped himself of his clothes and threw them into the wash. He walked into the bathroom and got in the shower and turned it on warm to hot. Finally, a much needed shower he thought. 15 minutes passed before he got out and looked around. The warm and hot shower fogged up the bathroom. He grabbed a towel off a nearby shelf and dried off his body before draping it across his waist and clearing up a spot on the fogged up mirror so he could see his reflection.

His hair still a bit wet partially covered his ruby eyes as he stared at the cross shaped scar on his right pectoral and a long scar mark along the bottom left side of his abdomen. He lightly ran his fingers across the right pectoral scar as he recalled a memory from his childhood. He clenched his fist at the memory of an exploding building deep in the forest where snow blanketed the area and a lone child lay still on the ground amongst some debris. He closed his eyes trying to remember more of what happened that day. There was an overcast of clouds that day and some snowfall.

"Come on Zayne, remember." He said to himself.

For a brief moment he thought he might have saw something shadowy among the center of the debris. It looked at him with angry and red feral eyes. A chill ran down his spine. His heart rate quickened. Sweat began forming on his body. This feral looking beast jumped at the child with a demonic roar and sharp fangs. Just as it was about to tear the child apart Zayne gave a panicked scream, "AH!" as his phone started ringing at the same exact moment jolting him out of his trance.

He looked in the mirror and noticed that he was breathing heavily with sweat dripping from his body. He took in a deep breath before grabbing his phone and looked at who was calling. It's Leo Zayne mentally said to himself. He walked out of the bathroom and answered the phone and said, "Hey Leo."

"Zayne! Uh...this isn't a bad time is it?" Leo asked.

"No it's fine. What's up?" Zayne replied.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow with Melanie, Invel and I?" Leo said.

"What time are you guys planning to meet?" Zayne asked.

"Noon for lunch! Then we're going to check out the academy." Leo said excitedly.

"Hmm...Sorry Leo, I'd like to but I made plans already with one of my seniors for lunch." Zayne said.

"Oh…" Leo said sounding disappointed.

"Hey, maybe next time. Class doesn't start for another two days so if you want we could meet the day after tomorrow." Zayne said.

Leo's ears perked up and said, "Yeah let's do that! I'll ask Karma and Killua too!" Leo said excited again.

"Alright then I'll see you then." Zayne said.

"Awesome! See you then Zayne, Bye!" Leo said.

Zayne then ended the call and threw his phone on the couch before flopping down next to it. It was a pretty big couch, large enough for him to fully lay down on. He rested there for a few minutes before getting up and grabbing his backpack. He didn't pack much. He took out the few clothes he did pack and put on maroon sweatpants and a white t-shirt. After he put away everything that he brought in an appropriate place he took his clothes out of the wash and into the dryer. He looked at the clock on his wall which read 8pm. He yawned before heading to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. Even though it was pretty early he was tired after everything that happened. He grabbed his packet and took it to his bedroom. He plopped down on his bed and opened up his packet. Guess I'll read until I fall asleep he said. As he started to read his eyes began to get droopy and not long after he was fast asleep.

 **888**

Rin walked into the Kanto Champion tower and into the bathroom where she began to take a hot shower. She was feeling stressed after the events that happened today. She let the hot water rain down on her as she recalled what happened at the meeting after her late appearance.

(She had finally resolved the Tyler incident and made it out of the battle dome. She flew on Articuno over to Tenjin Island where a branch of Ravenwood industries was located. Once she got inside she walked towards the meeting room where many of the board of directors were currently in. She took in a deep breath and let it out composing herself professionally before opening the doors and stepping inside. All eyes turned towards her direction.

"Well well, look who decides to show up." The first board member said.

"I apologize for my absence. There was a matter that needed to be handled as the student Kanto Champion of Atlas." Rin said as she walked in with confidence and sat down at the head of the table. She crossed her legs and folded her hands in front of her on the table then said, "Continue."

"Heh. Are you sure that isn't just an excuse for showing up late and whenever you please?" A second board member said.

"Perhaps handling the business is too much to handle for a youngling such as yourself." A third member said.

Before anyone could say anything else Rin placed her hand in the air signaling everyone to halt. "Enough." She said with a commanding tone. "I have apologized for my tardiness. However I will not tolerate this kind of demeaning slander." Rin said.

She narrowed her eyes at the first board member and said, "Igor, have you confirmed the joint partnership in the new research project with the Devon Corporation?"

"Err...we are still working on that currently." Igor said hesitantly.

"Oh. Perhaps I was mistaken. Who is this we you speak of. I remember you saying that you personally could acquire and guarantee the contract for the project. You've had two weeks, what seems to be the issue?" Rin said in an almost mocking and scolding tone.

"It's more difficult than you think. Not that you would understand. You merely inherited the larger share of the business from your father. What experience would you have it procuring a contract." Igor said condescendingly.

Rin grew annoyed and said, "You are right. I did inherit the largest share of the business from my father. My father who made the business what it is today. Now tell me, when my father had passed away it took 3 months before I officially stepped into the business. In that 3 months time, you board members had control of the business's dealings. How were the profit margins then?"

There was complete silence in the room. "Perhaps I should remind you that it had plummeted by 25%. In only 3 months. However we are now growing our profit margins by 22% since then." Rin then looked at the third board member and said, "I have turned a 25% decrease in profit margins nearly 180 degrees and Ravenwood industries profit margins have increased by 22% since then. Do you still doubt my ability to lead Ulas? If you think you could do better then you should have shown the world during the 3 months that the board had control of the business."

She looked at the second board member Nyla and said with a tone that dared Nyla to challenge her authority, "It appears that our fellow board members Igor and Ulas have some strong opinions on my ability to lead this company. Tell me Nyla, if that were the case then the board should of had no problems beginning the meeting without me. So tell me, what has the board finished discussing and has a decision been made on any of the following topics?"

Nyla shifted uncomfortably in her seat and remained silent. Rin then turned her attention to the entire board and said, "Well now. Does anyone else have anything they would like to add before we begin?"

Everyone remained silent.

People like Igor, Ulas, and Nyla only care about reaping the benefits without doing any of the work themselves. They prey on the weak and exploit people for their own gain. They disgust me. She looked out of her peripherals to the right seeing her uncle. The board probably wants to replace me with my uncle and he's probably the one who brought the idea up to them. He always did despise my dad. He didn't even try to defend me against the backlash of the board. Rin thought to herself. A brief image of Zayne speaking out against Tyler appeared in her head right after. She gave a small grin before turning her attention back at the board.

"Igor, you've had two weeks to procure the contract yet you have made no progress and you've yet presented to the board exactly how you were planning to obtain said contract, therefore, I motion to the board that if Igor is able to procure the contract before I do, then I, who hold 70% of the shares will give the board 10% of that 70% leaving me with only 60%. If I am able to procure the contract with the Devon Corporation before Igor does then all 6% of the shares that Igor holds will go to me effectively removing Igor as one of the board members in Ravenwood Industries." Rin said and proposed to the board.

There was a few moments of silence amongst the board and a little bit of chatter.

"W-What, you can't be serious. Like we would consider something like that." Igor said hesitantly.

The company doesn't need people like Igor in it. Especially in the decision making processes of the business. I'll need to start thinking of ways I can officially get rid of their hold on the company. I won't let them trample on the dream my dad had for this company Rin silently thought to herself.

After a few more minutes of chatter amongst themselves the board took a vote of motion and the motion had passed. Igor had a dissatisfied look on his face.

Heh, I knew they'd accept. They'd take any chance they could get to strip me of my power. Most of the board will probably try to work together to procure the contract before I can, we'll see just how well that works out for them in the end Rin thought).

Rin turned off the shower forgetting about the events earlier in the day and dried off getting ready for bed after her long day. Now how to get that contract she thought. She yawned and slipped under the covers on her bed.

"I'll think about it tomorrow." She said. Sleep soon took over her body.


	22. Chapter 21

**Author's Note: Once again I do not own pokemon nor do I own the character Zeno. Just a reminder again, if you see 888 that means a scene change. Alright, back to the story!**

* * *

Zayne rolled over to his side in bed only to have the sunlight flash on his face which stirred him awake. He slowly turned his head to look at the clock on his nightstand. The time read 7:03am. Zayne groaned as he slowly sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes a bit to gain more clarity. He looked down to his left to find the packet about the Academy that he unsuccessfully tried to read the night before. Guess I was too tired he thought. Zayne hadn't even got past the first page before he fell asleep. He shrugged and stretched a bit while yawning.

Zayne walked over to the bathroom and began brushing his teeth. Afterwards he stripped off his clothes once more and took a 10 minute morning shower. As he was getting out of his shower he heard his phone ring. He secured the towel around his waist before checking who it was that would be calling this early. It's Ren. I wonder what's up Zayne thought curiously.

He picked up the phone and before he could say anything Ren said, "Zayne, just thought I'd let you know that R-"

 _Knock_

 _Knock_

Zayne was distracted by the knocking of someone at his door so he interrupted Ren at that point and said, "Hold that thought, someone's at my door."

"Zayne, that's probably-" Ren started saying but was cut-off when Zayne opened the door to reveal Rin on the other side of it.

"Hey I just wanted t-" Rin started saying but stopped midway as she noticed Zayne's half naked state. She turned as red as an apple before turning around quickly saying, "Sorry! Uh...I didn't mean to interrupt."

Zayne stood there at the doorway entrance confused as Ren's protests and shouts could be heard over the phone Zayne held in his hand. A drop of water fell from his hair and landed on his chest shaking him out of his confused state at everything happening so early in the morning. He looked down and noticed he wasn't wearing anything but the towel at his waist. A tinge of pink appeared on his face as he said apologetically, "Sorry, I'll get dressed...you can come in and wait by the living area."

Rin silently nodded and said, "Thanks."

Zayne stepped back inside and into his room while Rin closed the door behind her as she walked into Zayne's suite. He's definitely fit she thought as an image of his tone abs, chest, and arms flashed in her mind. An image of his wet hair slightly covering his alluring ruby eyes flashed through her mind next. Rin frowned a little as she also recalled seeing scars on his chest. How did he get those? She wondered. She shook her head and walked around the room a little bit to try and get her mind off of the unexpected greeting she hadn't anticipated.

Rin noticed a few pictures of Zayne and his pokemon placed around the room. She smiled at a picture of a small Zayne and a beldum. She guessed that he was probably ten years old in that picture. The picture was of Zayne running looking back at shiny beldum chasing after him. The picture next to it also caught her attention. Rin made a surprised expression as she observed the photo next to the one with Zayne and Beldum. It was a picture of a little Zayne, most likely the same age as the picture before sitting on top of the shoulders of the former Hoenn Champion Steven Stone.

Meanwhile Zayne finished drying off in his room and had put Ren on speaker while he got changed. Zayne had already told him what transpired moments ago.

"As I was trying to tell you before you cut me off, Rin came to me this morning down by the lounge area and asked if I knew what your room number was. I was trying to tell you beforehand but you couldn't wait 2 seconds." Ren said.

"Sorry, I didn't think it'd be a girl at my door, especially Rin." Zayne said as he put on some black skinny jeans, white belt with pokeballs on it, and a white tank top with a large black symbol of a pokeball on the back and a small black pocket on the front of the tank near the top left corner. He put his watch and necklace on exchanging a few more words with Ren and confirming that lunch was still on before they said their goodbyes. Zayne looked at his wall that had a couple hats he brought hanging on it. Since Rin is here I don't want to keep her waiting so I guess I'll skip out on fixing my hair today. He put a black and white cap on and walked out to the living area where he noticed Rin staring at one of his photos he put on the wall.

She was looking slightly up with her right pointer finger resting near the bottom of her lip. Zayne felt his heartbeat quicken slightly. She looks really cute with that expression he silently thought. Rin was in her own world thinking and didn't notice Zayne walk up behind her.

"I was ten years old in that photo I think." Zayne said which startled Rin and brought her out of her own thoughts.

She turned to her side and placed her hands behind her. "Ah, sorry. I couldn't help my curiosity so I took a look around." Rin said.

He looks good Rin silently thought to herself observing Zayne's outfit for the day.

Zayne shook his head and said, "It's not a problem. You can look as much as you want." Rin smiled and looked back at the pictures before saying, "You look really happy in these photos, is Steven your dad?"

Zayne thought for a moment before saying, "Yes and no. My parents passed away when I was young. My past is a bit complicated…" Zayne said as his words trailed off. He paused thinking how to best continue his response.

Rin continued to listen intently not wanting to seem pushy on the subject.

"By chance and certain circumstances Steven happened to take me in so he is like a father to me. He taught me everything I know about the world and of pokemon. I'm really grateful to him. He actually had me enrolled here." Zayne said.

Rin thought for a moment. He's reluctant to talk about his childhood past. Those scars might have something to do with it and the fact that he lost his parents when he was really young. She stared at the happy picture of Zayne on the wall as she felt her heart ache a tiny bit. She then said, "I know what it's like to lose one's parents. My mom passed away when I was really young and my dad passed away when I was thirteen. I lived with my grandmother and grandfather until now." Rin said somberly as she remembered the past.

She turned to look up at Zayne with a newfound smile and said, "Hey, you haven't had breakfast yet right?"

Zayne shook his head and said, "Not yet." At that moment his stomach growled at the thought of breakfast.

"In that case would you like to join me? I know a good place on Nike Island. I'll buy as thanks for standing up for me yesterday." Rin said.

Before Zayne could protest Rin said, "No arguments. Besides that's the real reason I stopped by. To thank you."

Zayne just stared at her with amusement in his eyes. He smiled and said playfully, "Then I'll be sure to order lots of food!"

"Hey! I'm not so easy to take advantage of." She replied playfully with a hint of seriousness.

Zayne gave a small laugh and grabbed his backpack before they continued talking and joking as they left his suite. "Ehhhhhhh!?" Some confused students whisper shouted to themselves as they watched Zayne and Rin disappear into the elevator. They were around the corner and hid when they saw Rin at Zayne's door that morning. Curious as to why their House Champion was on their floor so early in the morning they had hid and watched the exchange between them.

 **888**

 _Knock_

 _Knock_

 _Knock._

"Come in." A voice said from inside the room.

Zeno opened the door and walked in after knocking. He closed the door and stopped in front of the desk remaining silent staring at the man by the large glass window that overlooked the Academy grounds. The man finally turned around and said, "Master Zeno I apologize for the informal meeting. I am Huxley Cromwell, Headmaster Adrastos's second hand. I've been expecting your arrival. I'm afraid the enemy has already made a move which is why Headmaster Adrastos is already on Mount Ouranos Island and not here to greet you." Huxley said with a worried expression.

Zeno kept a neutral expression and sighed before saying, "Very well. I shall make my way there."

Huxley placed his right hand over his chest and bowed deeply to show his deepest respect as Zeno walked out of the room.

"How troublesome." Zeno said to no one in particular as he walked out on the roof of the tallest building of Atlas Academy. He took out a master ball and threw it in the air. The light emanating from it shot high into the sky and disappeared amongst some clouds. Not a moment later Zeno jumped off the roof and landed on the back of Rayquaza who had flown down from the sky at an incredible speed, both disappearing high above the clouds not long after as they headed straight for Mount Ouranos Island.

 **888**

"Sludge Wave!" A man wearing a dark lab coat commanded to his Therian forme Thundurus.

A giant purple and dark wave of poison and sludge was directed straight at an Entei with an incredible speed and power.

"Sacred Fire!" Headmaster Adrastos commanded.

A gold hue surrounded Entei as it released a powerful golden colored flame from its mouth which struck the incoming attack. Sacred fire had destroyed the sludge wave attack and continued forward towards Thundurus.

"Protect!" The man yelled.

A green spherical shield surrounded Thundurus just in time blocking against the powerful golden flame.

"Thunder!" He yelled.

"Sunny Day!" Adrastos ordered.

The sunlight intensified at that moment causing thunder to miss its mark.

"Damn him." Said the man.

"Now solar beam!" Adrastos ordered.

Entei roared as it charged solar beam faster than usual thanks to the intense sunlight. A powerful golden and white beam struck Thundurus in the chest causing it to fall to the ground.

"Now use stone edge!" Adrastos commanded.

Powerful sharp rocks protruded from the ground towards Thundurus.

"Thunder!" The man cried.

A powerful bolt of lightning quickly shot from Thundurus's body into the air and just as quickly struck the surrounding area where Thundurus lay right as the protruding rocks rose out to strike it. The powerful lightning strike caused the ground around Thundurus to explode and blasted away the stone edge before they could pierce it. Thundurus gave an angry and powerful roar and Entei did the same.

"Who are you people?" Adrastos said with a serious tone standing on one side of the valley they were fighting on.

"You will know in time." The mysterious man said with a dark tone.

"Why are you here." Adrastos asked.

"You don't need to know that. But as a reward for your prowess in battle I shall tell you my name. You may call me Owen. Owen Blackwood " The man said.

Adrastos narrowed his eyes. The surrounding area was marred in fire and giant holes from their continuous battle.

"You and your organization pose a threat to the world. I cannot let you leave this island. Entei, iron head!" Adrastos said.

Owen smirked and said, "Smart strike!"

Thundurus's horn glowed as it charged Entei head-on. Both pokemon clashed and struck the other forcing both of them to stagger and fly backwards a great distance away. Before Entei's feet reached the ground Owen commanded Thundurus to use psychic. Thundurus's eyes glowed blue and held Entei in mid-air.

"Sludge Wave!" Owen commanded.

"No!" Adrastos said as the dark purple wave of sludge engulfed Entei and blasted Entei right into a wall of rock causing it to crack from the impact.

Adrastos grit his teeth and shouted, "Sacred Fire!"

Not a moment later and a powerful golden flame struck Thundurus causing it to cry out in pain. The strike was powerful enough to force Thundurus crashing into a wall of rock as well. The impact from the crash was strong enough to cause parts of the rock wall to fall and tumble on top of Thundurus.

"Impossible! Damn you!" Owen shouted to Adrastos.

Thundurus groaned in pain and was burnt from the attack. Entei staggered as it stood poisoned from the sludge wave attack earlier.

"It's time we end this." Adrastos said.

As the headmaster was about to command another attack another strange man appeared from the shadows. Adrastos paused.

"What's taking you so long." The strange man asked. He was cloaked and addressed Owen who replied with an annoyed tone saying, "What are you doing here Andronicus."

"I was sent here to retrieve you and the artifact since you were taking too long." Andronicus said with a neutral tone.

"Oh? Artifact you say. What artifact is that may I ask?" Adrastos said curiously and with a deep voice.

Owen turned his attention back at the Headmaster and said, "Ah, I almost forgot you were here."

The headmaster narrowed his eyes disapprovingly but did not fall for the provocation. He replied by saying, "Is that right. Well I can make that even easier for you. Give me the artifact and you won't have to almost forget that I was here. I'll do you one better and actually leave."

Thundurus and Entei flinched as they stood by still receiving damage from their status effects but remained standing with pride.

Andronicus turned and looked at the Headmaster then said, "I see. The reason for your delay was because of the Headmaster of Atlas Academy. I will take care of him, you should leave and secure the artifact." Adrastos said and stared at Andronicus.

Owen snarled and said, "Who do you think you are giving me orders brat." Andronicus only ignored him.

Unfortunately Entei is already badly injured. I don't know how long we'll be able to hold out. And I hate to admit it but that Owen fellow was quite strong. Although given a bit more time and I'm confident I would have beaten this Owen Blackwood, but I'm not sure how long Entei and I can hold out against both of them the Headmaster silently thought.

Andronicus reached down to his belt and pulled out a master ball. Adrastos grit his teeth. A master ball...this isn't looking good for me, however... Adrastos thought silently to himself as the intense sunlight disappeared and the Headmaster gave a small grin knowingly.

Andronicus was about to call out his pokemon when multiple large meteors rained down from the sky and struck the surrounding area.

"W-What is this!?" Owen yelled.

Andronicus had an expression of surprise and amazement as he jumped back and took shelter in a ditch nearby while Adrastos smirked. One of the large meteorites crashed right into Thundurus and a huge explosion erupted from the impact effectively knocking Thundurus unconscious creating a large crater where the meteorite touched ground. Owen screamed as the force of the blow knocked him back nearly a hundred feet away. Once the meteor shower passed Andronicus threw his master ball in the air and out emerged a Giratina who released a powerful and ferocious screech.

"Uh! It can't be. Giratina!" Adrastos said with disbelief. So this man managed to capture and tame Giratina. And not only that, I can tell that it has been trained extremely well. In fact, he may be more powerful than I am Adrastos thought as he observed Giratina. It had a dark and purple aura glowing around it much like his Entei had a red and orange glow around it only the glow around Giratina was much stronger. The daylight started to disappear unnaturally as dark clouds rolled over and covered the sky darkening the heavens above.

That attack earlier was no ordinary Draco Meteor Andronicus thought as he looked up. At that moment a powerful roar could be heard above the dark clouds as a Mega Rayquaza descended downwards carrying Zeno on its back. "So, it was Rayquaza." Adronicus said narrowing his eyes as he could tell immediately that it was no ordinary Rayquaza. As Rayquaza reached near the ground Zeno jumped off and landed next to the Headmaster.

"Yo." Zeno said nonchalantly.

"Hm...Took you long enough." Adrastos said with a grin.


	23. Chapter 22

_Ding._

Zayne and Rin stepped out as the elevator doors opened on the first floor. They continued to talk until they were near the window. They both looked surprised as they stared at the now dark and cloudy skies. That's weird they both thought simultaneously.

"It was sunny with clear skies just a few minutes ago wasn't it?" Rin inquired out loud.

Zayne nodded and said, "It definitely was. There wasn't a report of an incoming storm in the forecast today was there?" Zayne asked.

Rin shook her head and said, "No there wasn't. I checked this morning. Clear skies and sunny all week. At least it was supposed to be."

A few seconds later and the trees began to sway. Leaves and dust began flying through the air slowly at first but picked up pace and soon violently. The entire building shook as loud whirring noises could be heard as the powerful wind outside seeped through any openings of the building.

Rin took action immediately. "Close all windows and doors immediately!" She yelled and commanded with authority.

All students who had been idle gazing outside began to scramble and shut all doors and windows. Some students began running up the stairs to get to their rooms as fast as possible as some of them left their windows opened. The situation was similar in the other regional Houses as all student Champions had the same thought. This isn't normal, what's going on.

 **888**

Entei's knees gave out as it collapsed to the ground with a thud as it struggled to remain conscious. The poison continuing to weaken it with every passing moment. Adrastos grit his teeth and turned to Zeno before saying, "It doesn't look like Entei can handle another battle, especially not one of this level, I'm afraid you'll be on your own in this fight."

"What a troublesome opponent." Zeno said as he stepped forward as Adrastos recalled Entei.

Rayquaza gave a loud roar which shook the very core of the island. Giratina responded in a similar fashion. The powerful and forceful winds surrounding them due to Mega Rayquaza's Delta Stream ability blew off the cloak covering Andronicus's face revealing his features. Zeno simply starred with a neutral expression while analyzing his opponent.

He's quite young Zeno thought. He had long dark blue hair and fair skin with silver eyes.

Andronicus was analyzing Zeno as well. "You. Are you the legendary dragon trainer Zeno Zoldyck?" Andronicus asked.

"Well now, there's no need for titles." Zeno said simply.

"I see. It is an honor to finally meet you." Andronicus said.

At that moment Owen walked behind Andronicus and recalled his Thundurus and whispered to him, "We should make our escape."

Andronicus gave him a quick glance before returning his attention to Zeno and said, "I agree. However, it won't be that simple with someone of his caliber around. I will create a window of opportunity."

"Oh, planning to escape are we?" Zeno said anticipating what their next move will be. Andronicus showed no expression on his face but knew this was going to be a difficult battle. Andronicus turned his attention to Rayquaza gauging its power. It's in a mega form, however, with the glowing aura around its body, no doubt it has undergone a similar transformation as Giratina which means his Rayquaza is also at the level of a Holo Legend Andronicus thought to himself.

"Aura Sphere!" He said.

A large powerful purple blue orb formed in front of Giratina's jaw before it released the attack just as quickly as it formed. It flew towards Rayquaza at a blinding speed, however, Rayquaza was faster and flew to the side avoiding the attack. It crashed into a rock formation nearby and caused an explosion on impact decimating the area.

What a powerful aura sphere Zeno thought.

As expected of the dragon master Andronicus thought.

"Psychic!" Andronicus ordered.

"Dragon Ascent!" Zeno commanded.

As Giratina's eyes glowed purple and blue Rayquaza's body glowed a brilliant green and not a second later Rayquaza flew threw the air at a speed Andronicus had never seen. Rayquaza struck Giratina head on which caused an explosion on impact and blew Giratina into several rock formations. Giratina screamed in anguish as it recomposed itself and flew into the air.

"Thunder!" Zeno ordered.

"Shadow Force!" Andronicus commanded.

A powerful flash of white and golden light shined in the clouds before several gigantic bolts of lightning came crashing down towards Giratina in the sky. Before Giratina was struck it disappeared from view into the shadows causing the bolts of lightning to miss and strike asunder the ground below destroying the land formation. Not a moment later Giratina appeared on Rayquaza's right side and struck it with a dark and shadowy aura surrounding its body forcing Rayquaza to crash into a giant wall as Rayquaza let loose a deafening roar but not before Rayquaza's tail was able to strike Giratina on the side due to its much longer body. This threw Giratina off balance and forced Giratina to stagger back a few dozen feet. Giratina and Rayquaza continued to exchange physical blows with one another as each excellently and skillfully dodged, blocked, and struck the other.

Giratina flew towards Rayquaza in its origin form using its long shadowy-like wings as powerful piercing weapons in an attempt to strike its foe. Rayquaza flew to the left and expertly swerved and dodged multiple strikes before grabbing hold of one of Giratina's wings with its powerful jaw and flung Giratina towards the ground.

Zeno smirked and said, "Ha! Devastating Drake!"

A giant dragon-like aura surrounded Rayquaza before the attack dove towards Giratina with such a ferocious speed that Giratina wouldn't be able to dodge. Andronicus grit his teeth as he knew the attack would be unavoidable. The attack forced Giratina to crash straight into the ground cavitating it leaving a hole 30 feet deep.

"Never-Ending Nightmare!" Andronicus commanded.

Dark tendrils appeared underneath Rayquaza and grabbed ahold of it before encasing it fully in darkness and exploding outwards. The force of the blow caused Rayquaza to begin falling out of the sky.

Andronicus smirked and said, "Draco Meteor!" Giratina screeched and shot forth a glowing orb of energy into the air which split into many large meteors raining down towards Rayquaza.

"Counter with Twister!" Zeno ordered.

Rayquaza balanced itself mid-air after the last attack and roared as powerful winds above the clouds quickly dropped downwards surrounding Rayquaza in a powerful tornado. The winds from the twister was powerful enough to sweep up the meteors from Giratina's attack and caused them to spin on the outside with the twister instead of penetrating it to reach Rayquaza's body.

"Be ready to leave." Andronicus said to Owen who simply nodded.

"Psychic!" Andronicus ordered!

Giratina used Psychic to slow down the twister.

"Dragon Ascent!" Zeno said.

At that moment the twister came to a complete stop as Rayquaza's body glowed a brilliant green before it shot out towards Giratina leaving the eye of the storm.

"Shadow Force!" Andronicus commanded.

Giratina disappeared from view as Rayquaza flew through the spot where Giratina was missing its attack. Not a moment later Giratina appeared before Andronicus and Owen as the two of them jumped on its back and started flying away at an incredible speed.

"Draco Meteor Storm!" Andronicus commanded. Giratina shot a powerful orb of energy into the air behind it as it took off. The orb was different in color from the last Draco Meteor it used as it was now dark and purple in color and nearly five times the size. Zeno smirked anticipating this. The Draco Meteor Storm Giratina released was not a typical Draco Meteor. The meteors released from the attack rained down from the sky numbering in the hundreds and each one 5 times the original size.

"Force Thunder!" Zeno commanded.

Rayquaza gave a powerful roar as aura that surrounded it shot into the sky and a loud sound of thunder could be heard resonating across all the islands.


	24. Chapter 23

The wind started to howl as if the end of the world was near and the clouds in the sky started to swirl beginning to look like tornados would crash down on land. It was not just the students and faculty on Argos island who were nervous but also everyone across all the other islands. It truly seemed as if a disaster would strike and bring upon the apocalypse.

"Reporting! All windows and doors have been shut tight. I've received news from the other houses that they have stabilized their situation as well." Ren reported in an orderly and professional manner to Rin. He was the second seat of House Kanto and therefore the Vice captain or leader when the House champion wasn't around.

Since Rin was present and gave an order earlier he didn't dally around and oversaw that everything was done. Rin's eyes didn't leave the window as she stared at this terrifying event brewing outside and simply nodded her head saying, "Good work."

Zayne took notice of the tense atmosphere in the room but silently praised everyone present in his heart. Even though the atmosphere is really tense no one is openly panicking and causing disruption. Atlas is truly deserving to be one of the top academy's in the world. Everyone who gets admitted truly have the potential to become a significant individual in the future.

Ren looked out the window and said, "What do you think Captain?"

Rin shook her head and said, "I'm not sure. I don't think it is some sort of natural disaster, it came too suddenly and with the tech Atlas has there is no way they wouldn't have picked up this storm on their radar. The only thing I can think of is a pokemon battle between extremely powerful and dangerous legendary pokemon. Don't stay too close to the windows."

Everyone in the room shook at their Champion's conjecture before people started to take a few steps back and started discussing among themselves. "I get that legendary pokemon are strong but this is too terrifying isn't it?" "Right, the aura in the air is so dense and heavy." "I know what you mean. I've witnessed legendary pokemon fight before but the energy in the air, it's way more frightening than that time."

As the students continued to whisper and discuss a giant flash of green and golden lightning that seemed as if it could tear apart the universe fell from the sky and blinded all the islands causing everyone to shut their eyes. The heavens and the earth shook and trembled. A loud *Clank* was heard and Zayne swiftly pivoted his body so his back was facing the window as he held Rin close to his chest.

All the windows violently shattered as they blew in all directions. A small piece struck Zayne's shoulder and he grimaced at the pain but endured it anyways. Some students shouted and groaned and moaned as they were injured but luckily they all moved away from the windows earlier. By some miracle there was no one who was severely injured and most had only minor cuts and wounds. With the technology that the academy had it wouldn't take more than a few moments to help heal these student's injuries. In fact, the strike from earlier was so powerful that most of the glass from the windows were turned to dust.

No more than a moment passed before a heaven shattering *BOOM* was heard and caused everyone to fall down to the floor as if they lost the strength in their own legs. The pressure and noise was so powerful that some even fainted on the spot. A few seconds later and the wind and dark clouds dissipated as if it were never there. Clear blue skies and a bright, warm sunlight encompassed all the islands. If there weren't remnant pieces of shattered glass, fallen trees, and upturned earth all around, one couldn't have guessed that a major calamity had just recently struck.

Zayne groaned waking up from the shock earlier and thought to himself that the floor was surprisingly soft. That was until he heard someone groan underneath him. He propped himself up and looked down to see the flustered House Champion under him. Their eyes met momentarily but it felt like the world stopped spinning and time had frozen over. It wasn't until Ren who was on the floor next to them coughed that they realized the awkward position they were in.

Zayne quickly lifted himself off the floor and extended a hand to help Rin up as well which she didn't stand on courtesy and gladly accepted the assistance. Once she was upright she couldn't help but feel her face turn red before whispering a soft thanks in which Zayne simply replied with a "mhm." They turned to look at their surroundings and noticed the chaotic remnants of the aftermath.

Rin recomposed herself and assumed her Champion role. With a strong, proud, and commanding voice she said, "Listen up! Everyone who can move unhindered, help those who are injured move to the lounge area. After that we will work together to clean up the glass and reorganize the building. Ren, you will contact headquarters and see what the situation is. Get them to send a medical team over here immediately. Is that understood?"

Everyone simply shouted, "Yes Ma'am!"

As they got to work Rin turned around and stared at Zayne concerned. "You're bleeding."

He simply replied with a shrug and said, "Just a minor wound."

Rin frowned and said, "Go to the lounge area and wait. No exceptions." Zayne wanted to say something but she had already turned around and left.

"Hahaha, you're whipped dude." Ren said as he walked up next to Zayne.

"We don't have that kind of relationship." Zayne replied.

Ren laughed once more and said, "But you want to right?" Before Ren could wrap his arm around Zayne's neck in a brotherly hug Zayne had already walked off into the lounge area. Ren just shook his head to himself and got to work.

 **888**

Two men stood silently at the edge of a deep and giant crater as water from the ocean rushed and poured in as if trying to cover up the fact that there used to be a piece of land there. One of the old men gave a sigh and turned around to leave. "How troublesome" the old man said.

"They escaped then?" Said a man rhetorically. He had long golden hair wearing a haori with the words headmaster on it. That's right, these two old men were the Dragon master Zeno Zoldyck and the headmaster of Atlas Academy Adrastos. Zeno and Adrastos jumped onto Rayquaza's back and flew off towards Mount Ouranos in silence.


	25. Chapter 24

Atlas Academy was definitely known to be one of the top academy's in the world. Just within 24 hours and one couldn't even tell that a disaster fell upon the place. A medical team was sent to the various Houses on the island and pretty soon everything was back to normal. The only difference was the speculation about the massive event circulating around all the islands.

Many were still frightened by what they experienced and others like the students were trying to figure out what was the exact cause. Even though the headmaster addressed the issue saying that it was a random encounter between two feuding legendary pokemon and the situation was handled by the upper echelons of the academy, not much else was said about the event and still left people curious.

Due to the event that took place Zayne ended up not getting to explore the rest of the islands and the day of their first class was today. He woke up early, showered and finished some daily cares before slipping on white jeans, a black belt, a red t-shirt, a light thin white jacket and slung his backpack over his shoulder before heading off towards the academy building. It was currently 7:30am and class began and 8am.

He ran off and noticed that three other students from his dorm set off as well. What perplexed him was that these three students were also first years like him and they even took the exam in the same group. Zayne didn't see any second years and beyond heading towards the direction of the academy which made him think that their class schedule must be very different. He didn't think too much about it after that thought and arrived in the classroom located on the second floor of the building. As he walked in he saw that this classroom set-up was different than the set up on the day of the exam. Instead of individual desks there were three long tables in each row and instead of the room being straight and flat, each row was higher up than the next making it look more like a round theater. It was definitely a large space that could easily accommodate a large group of students.

Up on the very front was a large podium and a blackboard behind it on the wall. To the side of the podium was a large desk with a clutter of stuff on it. Zayne looked around and saw that most of the students that took the entrance exam were already present. He walked over to the front row and took a seat on the right side next to the window. It wasn't long after before he saw two familiar faces walk in. Killua and Karma saw him and took a seat in the front row as well next to him.

"Yo." Killua and Karma greeted Zayne. He nodded in their direction. Before he could respond there the three of them heard their names being called by an enthusiastic voice. No doubt this was Leo's voice. They turned their heads towards the door and saw Leo, Melanie, and Invel walking towards their direction.

"Guys! Did you see what happened the other day? It was incredible!" Leo started talking about the disaster that hit that day and continued to ramble on as Invel and Melanie took the row directly behind Zayne and the others and sat down.

Not a moment later they saw Professor Yucca walk in as he said, "Alright everyone, take a seat."

Leo quickly ran up next to Invel and Melanie and sat down. Professor Yucca walked up to the podium signaling the start of their very first day of class. Everyone was quiet in anticipation of how classes at the academy would be taught.

*Ahem*

Professor Yucca cleared his throat and began the start of the lecture. "First, congratulations once more. You are all official students of Atlas Academy. This is already a noble feat that you can be proud of, as you already know, those who carry the name Atlas Academy with them are well respected in the world. But this also means you now have a heavy responsibility to not shame the name."

This caused everyone to be excited and nervous at the same time. Some fidgeted in their seats while others had their bloods boil in excitement. Professor Yucca continued, "Now I know you all experienced the strange phenomena that happened the other day so let me just make a statement right now. Don't ask me about it. The headmaster has already released a statement regarding the issue and we'll leave it at that. You are here to learn, not to gossip."

A few students were disappointed that Professor Yucca wasn't going to address the issue in depth but didn't voice their opinions. The door to the classroom opened soon after and a few people walked in wearing lab coats brought in a mechanical device.

"I know everyone has some sort of Dex that they use whether it is a the standard pokedex, the atlas dex that was issued to you, or some other form of device, you will now register it into our database. If there are important events or something urgent that needs your attention comes up then the academy will be able to provide you that information directly through your registered device. Now everyone come up and register your device, then we will begin today's lecture."

As soon as Professor Yucca finished saying that everyone lined up and began registering their device. Some used the atlas dex provided and some used another form of device but what was noteworthy was that no one used the standard pokedex to register. This inadvertently showed how different these students were compared to other trainers of the world. As Karma went up to register he pulled out his multidex to register.

"Oh, so you've got a multidex, that's pretty rare." Noted Killua.

Karma smiled and said, "Obviously, you probably have a rare device too." Killua smirked and pulled out his device to register.

"Indeed it's quite rare, you've got a masterdex." Zayne said from behind.

Karma nodded and said, "The most advanced Dex devices nowadays are either the multidex or the masterdex. All pokemon trainers on the road to becoming a pokemon master need to eventually get one."

Zayne also nodded in agreement and pulled out his own masterdex to register. Many of the surrounding students starred in awe at some of the rare devices that their peers pulled out to register. Soon after everyone finished Professor Yucca stood up once more before the podium and the classroom turned to silence once more.

"Before we begin the main topic of today I will clarify to you all what your stay here at Atlas Academy will look like. First, there are only 70 of you this year who have been admitted as first year students. Look around you, the lot of you are the only first year students here."

This bit of information startled everyone here. They didn't expect that they'd be the only first year students.

Professor Yucca then said, "We had a total of 200 open spots this year but only 70 were filled. This is why you can have a small amount of pride in making it as official students. But don't let it get to your head. If you are going to survive here then you have to work hard and have a strong willpower to achieve success. Last year there were only 25 students who were admitted, the year before that there were 181 students admitted, and before that year there were none. Only first year students have a set schedule. Second years and beyond have no set classes. In other words, after your first year you will have to depend on your own ability to achieve and learn what you can. The reason for this is simple. All of you have different goals for the future. We cannot cater to each of your goals and aspirations as that would be a waste of your time and our time. As first year students, the reason why you have classes is because our job is to help you acclimate into the academy and broaden your horizons. Many of you have been on pokemon journeys already but that was simply adventuring around. I doubt many of you actually took the time to contemplate about the world and reflect on your experiences. Hence, during your first year here you will attend classes 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Classes start at 8am sharp. You will not always have me as your instructor. Classes can be as short and as long as the instructor wants. You can be in class for merely 10 minutes or it can last as long as the entire day. It is because of this reason that you should not make any prior arrangements on the days you have class since you won't know when class will end."

At this point many students were very startled and had many thoughts running through their minds.

Professor Yucca didn't care and just continued on. "I know each of you have your own goals and aspirations in the future and if you don't have one yet then after your horizons are broaden during this first year, choose a direction you want to walk. Atlas Academy is here for that purpose. It is here to be your outlet and help you build a strong foundation for your future. Atlas has tools, connections, and resources that are ready at your disposal. If and how you use them will be important to your future. That is why this first year of yours is one where we will help you acclimate and broaden your horizons. Once you are second year students you can choose to spend your time however you like and use the facilities as you wish so long as it is within the bounds of the school rules. That way you can maximize your time to doing the things that will benefit you most on your future path. With all of that said, I shall now broaden your horizons beginning with the main topic of today. Limit Break Evolution." At that moment, the atmosphere in the room was filled with endless excitement and fighting spirit it was almost as if it was tangible.


	26. Chapter 25

At the mention of Limit Break Evolution everyone felt as if their blood was boiling over from the excitement. Many have never heard about Limit Break Evolution and those that have heard about it didn't now much. Professor Yucca merely smiled and continued with the lecture.

"Limit Break Evolution is a way for pokemon to reach new heights and power beyond your imagination. Many of you probably think that level 100 is the maximum potential a pokemon can reach. I shall tell you now that that notion is absolutely false. I will now present to you what is known as the limit evolution lineage. They are the Beginner stage, Intermediate stage, Advanced stage, Prime stage, Level X stage, Level EX stage, Level GX stage, Holo Legend stage, and finally, the theorized Origins stage."

At this moment everyone was in a daze. Who knew that there were this many power levels that pokemon could achieve? Professor Yucca then continued to explain without stopping noticing that everyone was truly focused and listening intently. Afterall, who wouldn't? This was all extremely intriguing and interesting to them. They who always thought that level 100 was the end just had their entire world broken down and re-written in front of them.

"Let me break it down for you all. Essentially pokemon are categorized into three different realms. The Earthen realm, the Heavenly realm, and the Divine realm. The Earthen realm are pokemon that are at the Beginner, Intermediate, or the Advanced stage. The Heavenly realm are pokemon that have entered the Prime, Level X, Level EX, or Level GX stage. And finally, pokemon that have entered the Holo Legend or Origins stage are known as stepping into the Divine realm.

Let us break down the Earthen realm further. In the Earthen realm are Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced stage pokemon. Pokemon that are at the Beginner stage are pokemon whose levels range from 1-40. Those at the Intermediate stage are level 41-70. And those at the Advanced stage are pokemon whose levels range from 71-100.

So the question is how then does a pokemon break free from its shackles and enter the Heavenly realm and become a Prime stage pokemon? First, there are certain conditions that need to be met. In order for a pokemon to become a Prime pokemon they must first be level 100. They must also have at least 1 perfect IV stat. And finally, you must have a prime evolution stone."

At this point many students had their hearts beating wildly in their chest from all the knowledge being given to them. The lectures here at Atlas went beyond their expectations. Every student knew that it would be beneficial to them but no one ever expected that their minds would be completely blown away and that they would have their eyes open to a whole new world! In fact, this was still only their first day! What would the rest of their classes be like if the first day already was so eye opening and amazing? Professor Yucca then continued on like it was normal. Afterall it wasn't his first time teaching first year students and seeing this type of reaction.

"Before I continue further on I will talk about pokemon fates. This is a way to categorize pokemon with different IV stats. Pokemon with no perfect IV's are known as pokemon with Earthen fates. Just as it suggests, pokemon with Earthen fates can only reach the limit of the Earthen realm, which is level 100. They will not be able to break free of their shackles and enter the Heavenly realm becoming a Prime pokemon.

Pokemon that have 1 perfect IV are known as having a First Heavenly fate. Those with 2 perfect IV's are known as Second Heavenly fate. Those with 3 are known as Third Heavenly fate and 4 are Fourth Heavenly Fate. Those with 5 perfect IV's are known as having a Fifth Divine Fate, and 6 perfect IV's are pokemon known as Sixth Divine Fate. There are 6 fates due to the 6 stats in which IV's are associated with. They are Health Points, Attack, Special Attack, Defence, Special Defence, and Speed. Having a perfect IV in any one of these stats will mean that your pokemon has the potential to step into the Heavenly realm and become a Prime pokemon. Two perfect stats means the potential to become a Lv. X pokemon, three perfect IV's means the pokemon has the potential to become a LV. EX pokemon and so on and so forth.

Now moving on. How does a pokemon move from a Prime stage pokemon into a Level X stage pokemon? This time you do not need a stone. The reason is because once you use a prime evolution stone the innate quality of your pokemon's energy will undergo a massive change and become more pure and dense. It is a rebirth of your pokemon into the best quality of energy your pokemon contains hence the name Prime. Once a pokemon performs a limit evolution break into a Prime pokemon they will start back as a level 1 Prime pokemon.

Once a Prime pokemon becomes level 100 they will automatically evolve into a Level X stage pokemon and begin as a level 1 Level X pokemon. The X stands for the next limit. So the condition for a pokemon to move from the Prime stage into the LV. X stage is for the pokemon to be level 100 Prime stage and also have 2 perfect IV's.

To become a Level EX pokemon the Level X pokemon must reach level 150 and have 3 perfect IV's. At that time the Level X pokemon will evolve into a Level EX pokemon starting out at level 1 again. EX stands for extra limit and it is at this time that your pokemon will no longer be limited to 4 pokemon attacks but instead gain an extra attack slot gaining a total of 5 attacks that are possible.

To become a Level GX pokemon the Level EX pokemon must reach level 200 with 4 perfect IV's and then it will evolve to become a level 1 GX pokemon. GX stands for generational limit. To become a Holo Legend stage pokemon is much more difficult. We will discuss that on Wednesday and we will also dive into more details on the intricacies of each limit break and what makes Prime different from the Earthen realm, and what makes LV. X different from LV. EX, etc. For now, you may all take your leave and contemplate all that we talked about today."

Professor Yucca simply walked out of the classroom after that signaling the official end of the class. Everyone in the class simply remained silent for a few moments before the class immediately turned into an uproar of excitement! Even Zayne, Killua, and Karma couldn't contain their excitement.


End file.
